A year ago, the Battelle Memorial Institute recommended that Iowa’s leaders take several steps to increase the state’s return on investments in the biological sciences. Since then, state organizations focusing on biotechnology have ramped up their efforts to improve the business climate for biotech companies.

The Iowa Department of Economic Development has accomplished one of the Battelle recommendations by establishing the business-minded Biosciences Alliance, which has formed subcommittees to look at how to capitalize on Iowa’s strengths in the biological sciences and eventually translate those into jobs. Tina Hoffman, a spokeswoman for the IDED, said the Alliance is making progress.

“The subcommittees had their first meeting this winter, and they’ve been meeting often since then,” Hoffman said. “Just getting everyone in the same room to have the same conversation and realize that there is one common goal to work toward is a good step. The Battelle report looked at our strengths and a sub-report built a strategic plan and identified gaps in our system. There’s this overall plan to work from, and the committees are trying to implement it and fill in the gaps.”

The Biosciences Alliance brings together representatives from businesses agriculture, economic developers, government, state universities and other higher education institutions. Currently, 48 people are involved in the group, working in seven areas: bioeconomy; advanced food and feed; animal systems; integrated post-genomic medicine; integrated drug discovery development, piloting and production; integrated biosecurity; and biomedical imaging.

“Since the Alliance came together, I think there has been a huge shift in the attitudes of universities being separate and operating on a different basis than businesses,” Hoffman said. “They’ve really come together and see a joint mission to work together with business community to grow the bioscience industry. They’ve just gotten to that point to develop the work plan. Much of what they are doing is dependent on funding, and that is all being debated on the hill.”

Another group, the Iowa Biotechnology Association, is privately funded through membership fees. The organization, which is an affiliate of the national Biotechnology Industry Organization, seeks to advance bioscience opportunities in Iowa, and focuses its efforts on companies doing business in the state.

“Our mission is to grow life science industry in Iowa,” said Doug Getter, the IBA’s executive director.

“We are not out as an economic development group trying to take something away from other states. We are privately supported through our membership, who we work on behalf of.”

The IBA became an independent organization in 1997, after having begun as a unit within the Iowa Business Council. Since then, its membership has grown from 18 businesses to more than 90. Getter said his organization believes the best way to build the state’s bioscience industry is to help businesses in Iowa grow.

“The one thing about developing life sciences in state is that we are working with people who have lived and studied and worked here, whereas an economic development initiative is trying to get someone to locate from one spot to another,” Getter said. “We are dealing with Iowans who have families and ties here, which really makes a for a solid grass-roots foundation for developing life sciences in Iowa.”

The IBA partners with Iowa State University to hold biotech mixers around the state at which companies build relationships among themselves. The IBA also works with lawyers on issues related to intellectual property and the commercialization of that property and it lobbies the Legislature to promote laws that are good for Iowa’s business climate. Additionally, the organization holds a statewide biotechnology conference each September.

“Activities of the association are designed to give companies doing business in Iowa an edge in delivering timely new products to consumers through the sharing of ideas regarding the transfer and development of technologies,” Getter said.

Members also can are able to take advantage of IBA-negotiated purchasing agreements that enable them to buy laboratory equipment, casework, scientific supplies and other materials at a significant discount, Getter said.

“We’ve put a lot of purchasing power together, which separately, small or medium-sized companies would never dream of being able to access,” Getter said. “If our companies spend less on setting up the labs, equipping them and keeping them supplied, that especially helps those new and emerging companies.”

On the legislative side, the IBA is awaiting decisions on funding for the Grow Iowa Values Fund and on House File 860, which would allow the sale and transfer of tax credits related to a companies’ annual net operating loss.

“This is another potential tool for young and emerging companies to survive while they fine tune their research into something that has commercial value,” Getter said. “This legislation would allow for the sale and transfer of emerging companies’ tax credits. Oftentimes, emerging companies like ours spend several years in research and development and have a need for cash in an ongoing basis.”

Last week, members from the BIOWA Development Association, a non-profit group to support and promote the growth and development of Iowa’s bioeconomy, traveled to the World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioprocessing, where Gov. Tom Vilsack delivered a keynote address about Iowa’s strength in biotechnology. The IDED was one of the sponsors of the conference, which was presented by the IBA’s parent organization, the Biotechnology Industry Organization.

“I am told that at no other time, had anybody been such a star,” said the IDED’s Hoffman. “We clearly have the raw products necessary as well as the world-renowned research.”