Louisiana

Louisiana: Leading the Biotech Corridor

Louisiana’s biotechnology industry is growing rapidly. R&D capacity and programs, technology incubators, commercialization partnerships between universities and entrepreneurs, robust business assistance, a growing bioscience workforce and a strategic location prime the state for biotech development.

New Orleans has long been recognized as a health care leader. It uses that strength to advance the growth of its biotechnology and biomedical sectors. Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center (LSUHSC), Tulane University Health Sciences Center, Xavier University of Louisiana and the University of New Orleans conduct pioneering medical research in cancer, diabetes and heart disease. The New Orleans Bioinnovation Center, complete with wet-lab space and a GMP facility, is scheduled for completion in 2007.

Also in New Orleans are the Louisiana Gene Therapy Consortium, the Louisiana Cancer Research Center and various centers associated with HIV/AIDS, women’s and minority health issues and environmental research. More than 1,000 jobs commercialize life science research. Fueled by local university research, angel investor networks, CAPCO funds and other seed capital, more than 30 life sciences companies have already settled in the area. Over 24,000 healthcare and medical research employees work in the downtown medical district.

Louisiana State University (LSU) anchors Baton Rouge’s biotech industry. The LSU School of Veterinary Medicine received a $9.9 million Center for Biomedical Research Excellence grant to establish a Center for Experimental Infectious Disease Research. Baton Rouge is also home to the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, housing 14 research labs. The LSU System Research and Technology Foundation is funded by $17.8 million in tech transfer initiatives.

“We are capitalizing on the extensive research that’s going on at our universities by putting in an infrastructure of wet-lab incubators and early stage funding,” says Arthur Cooper, Executive Director of the $11.7 million Louisiana Emerging Technology Center, a 67,000-square foot, state-of-the-art incubator. “LSU is also streamlining its tech transfer process so we can commercialize more of our research.”

Shreveport is home to the Biomedical Research Foundation of Northwest Louisiana (BRF). Aided by a $13 million annual budget and $80 million in assets, BRF aims “to pioneer a knowledge-based regional economy by cultivating and attracting life science enterprises and related technologies.” BRF owns and operates the $40 million, 160,000-square-foot Biomedical Research Institute (BRI), where 240 LSUHSC researchers study immunology, ischemic disorders, cellular communication in the nervous and cardiovascular systems, signal transduction, neurosciences, and alcohol and drug abuse.

BRF also sponsors the InterTech Science Park, an 800-acre science and technology park. InterTech is developing a center for healthcare based on advanced biomedical technologies and cultivating related high-tech industrial activity. The park includes three major medical centers, a nursing school, the Virginia K. Shehee Biomedical Research Institute, the BioSpace 1 multi-tenant commercialization building, the Center for Biomedical Technology Innovation and Louisiana’s only Positron Emission Tomography (PET) Imaging Center.

“Our core equipment research labs provide biotech companies access to costly analytic equipment on a fee-for-use basis, along with technicians trained to use them,” says BRF Vice President of Planning & Development Dennis Lower. “We also have extensive animal facilities for our clients and a robust clinical trials division at the medical schools.”

The nine-university Consortium for Education Research & Technology (CERT) supports InterTech clients by developing a well-rounded bioscience workforce. Through the north Louisiana regional college and university system, CERT collaborates in curricula development, workforce training, technology transfer, technology related economic development and university-industry partnerships. CERT also formed the Institute for Biomedical Informatics, which coordinates biomedical and biotechnological research with education in these growing fields.
Louisiana’s bioscience R&D is propelled by Vision 2020, a strategy to build an economy driven by diverse technology industries. As part of this plan, biotech companies in the state are not required to pay sales tax on capital expenditures for new research equipment. Technology commercialization tax credits are available.

Louisiana actively supports transfer initiatives. The Louisiana State University System Research and Technology Foundation develops partnerships between universities and industry. The Louisiana Economic Development Corporation committed $5.75 million to the Foundation to create an early-stage seed fund, which has been matched with $12.75 million in private funding. Louisiana’s university infrastructure provides the best support for bioscience research.

For more information about bioscience opportunities in Louisiana, contact Don Pierson at 225-342-3000 or pierson@louisiana.gov.