“JOBS ACROSS MARYLAND TOUR” WITH RELEASE OF STUDY ON MEDICAL INNOVATION, JOB CREATION

Governor joins former Majority Leader Dick Gephardt to release study on medical innovation in America

ANNAPOLIS, MD (June 22, 2010) – Governor Martin O’Malley continued his “Jobs Across Maryland Tour” at Baltimore’s World Trade Center today, where he joined Dick Gephardt, former U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader, to release Gone Tomorrow?, a study on promoting medical innovation, creating jobs and finding cures for diseases. The study, prepared by the Battelle Technology Partnership Practice, develops a policy agenda for the continued investment in medical innovation, which will fuel job creation and discovery of cures.

“Maryland’s biotechnology industry is at the forefront of medical innovation and continues to make groundbreaking discoveries because of the State’s continued investments in our workforce, our higher education system and in the programs that have helped our emerging companies to succeed,” said Governor O’Malley. “We are pleased to join in the release of the Gone Tomorrow? report, which shares many of the same goals of our BioMaryland 2002 plan, including growing venture capital funding, investing in medical research and supporting tech transfer.”

Medical innovation has the proven ability to generate economic growth by sustaining and creating new jobs in the highly desirable, knowledge-based economy and providing significant health advances that benefit individuals and society as a whole. Gone Tomorrow? recognizes that policy proposals designed to spur innovation, economic development, and job growth should include medical innovation as a cornerstone to succeed fully.

“Medical innovation presents the best opportunity to help innovate our way out of the health and economic crises facing America today, but it’s clear the clock is ticking,” said Richard Gephardt, Former U.S. House Majority Leader and Chairman of the Council for American Medical Innovation. “Advancing a national strategy for medical innovation that engages all sectors – public, private and academic – through an empowered federal office is an effective first step.”

The study finds that over the past 30 years, our world-class medical innovation ecosystem has enabled the U.S. to become the global leader in biomedical development and provided people in the U.S. unparalleled access to medical breakthroughs.

Proposed actions in the report include:
· Sustained public investment in medical research;
· Enlightened public policies supporting technology transfer and intellectual property protection;
· Advanced venture financing at all stages of firm development;
· A robust market for new treatments; and
· A tax and regulatory climate that provided a path for private enterprise to advance new product development.

Under Governor O’Malley’s leadership, Maryland continues to invest in an “innovation economy,” even in tough times, through initiatives such as BioMaryland 2020. This initiative delivered approximately $100 million in investments in FY2010 and 2011 in the biotechnology industry, including more than $22 million for the Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund. Governor O’Malley also increased investment in the Biotech Tax Credit from $6 million in FY2010 to $8 million in FY2011. Last month, Governor O’Malley proposed an ambitious initiative called Invest Maryland to invest in Maryland’s emerging technology and bioscience companies.

Home to nearly 500 bioscience companies and 50 research-intense federal institutes and centers, Maryland is well positioned in the global bioscience industry and has been recognized by the Milken Institute as one of the top tier states highly specialized in overall bioscience development. Since the early 1990s, Maryland has focused on bioscience development and was one of the first states to develop a strategic plan for the industry.

Over the years, strategic investments have helped Maryland’s bioscience industry grow into one of the world’s largest bioscience research complexes, known for its wealth of federal facilities, institutions of higher learning and concentration of highly trained bioscience researchers. From 2001 to 2006, the State’s bioscience industry grew by nearly 15 percent, adding 3,200 jobs to top more than 25,000 bioscience jobs in Maryland. In addition, from 2002 to 2007, Maryland’s university bioscience research soared, growing 44 percent from $877,000 to $1.3 billion. Today, Maryland ranks first among the states in federal R&D obligations, according to National Science Foundation data, and second in federal obligations for research and development with $12.5 billion.

Former U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt serves as Chairman of the Council for American Medical Innovation (CAMI). Launched in 2009, CAMI has brought together leaders in research, medicine, public health, academia, education, labor, and business, who are working in partnership to encourage public policies that advance medical innovation and the development of lifesaving treatments, enhance job growth, and promote patient access.