Skilled workers needed for biotech jobs

Biotechnology remains a job creation engine for California despite the financial gridlock that threatens to starve smaller biotech companies of the capital they need to turn lab discoveries into new treatments, the industry's Northern California trade association said.

But the group, BayBio, said many biomedical jobs may go unfilled because the state's programs in science education aren't meeting the demand.

That conclusion was part of the annual report BayBio issued Wednesday showcasing the accomplishments of California life sciences companies. It was certainly the most poignant message in the report, given the U.S. environment of layoffs and climbing unemployment rates.

BayBio released its Impact 2009 study in San Francisco, drawing a spin-off crowd from the thousands of executives and investors gathered nearby for the industry's big J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference at the Westin St. Francis.

The trade group recited its usual inventory of noteworthy accomplishments from the Northern California life sciences cluster - the oldest, largest and most productive in the nation. BayBio uses the data to lobby Sacramento and Washington legislators for tax breaks and other policies to foster the growth of the industry. Such measures are more important than ever as the credit crunch continues to hamper biotech innovation, said BayBio president Matt Gardner.

But a concern in California is a category of positions that remain open because the state can't train people fast enough.

Biomedical companies and hospitals need licensed clinical laboratory scientists to carry out diagnostic tests and other lab tasks to support medical treatment and research. If the state quadrupled its output of such workers, Gardner said, it wouldn't meet the need in hospitals alone. And more such workers are being sought by companies that are steadily developing an array of gene-based tests to match each patient with the best treatment, part of a biotech approach called "personalized medicine."

"The biotech industry is ready, willing and able to add new jobs," Gardner said.

But Gardner said California's budget crisis may make it difficult to beef up educational programs in science, one of the core recommendations of the trade group. "Alarmingly, the U.S. Department of Education ranked California student achievement 48 out of 50 states in eighth-grade science education in 2007," BayBio said in its report.

Budget constraints could force more biotech companies to focus their waning resources on a smaller number of scientific projects if the flow of capital doesn't improve, Gardner said. To help struggling companies that have not yet achieved profitability, the state and federal governments should allow those firms greater flexibility to convert their operating losses into tax rebates or offsets on future profit, BayBio said.

Biotech, medical device and diagnostic test developers contribute more than $22 billion to the state payroll with about 264,000 jobs in the sector, the trade group said. California companies have 1,294 treatments on the market, and another 738 in later-stage clinical testing.

Northern California has about 4,083 life sciences companies, compared with about 4,646 in Southern California. But the Northern cluster has 463 experimental treatments in late-stage testing, while Southern California has 275, BayBio said.

Source