A freed-up State Budget allows investment into biosciences. Giving US leadership in bioscience development and creation of more jobs.

The recent economic downturn has had a significant impact on the bioscience industry. Venture capital investment in the industry is down more than 50% from the previous year. Of the publicly traded bioscience companies, over 90% have experienced significant losses in their market capitalization. Smaller bioscience companies are more acutely affected, with many companies trading below their cash value and with less than a year's worth of operating capital remaining in their coffers. Due to pressure from investors looking for quick returns, some companies are abandoning research on new products and technologies and only focusing on products that are further along in the development phase. While the economic climate has been difficult for bioscience companies, it has also had a significant impact on state budgets, causing many states to cut programs and reassess economic priorities. The biosciences continue to be a high growth, high value industry for many states. Almost every state in the country is actively engaged in building bioscience industry infrastructure. State sponsored programs to encourage investment and help bioscience companies leverage existing resources can be instrumental in helping these innovative companies survive this economic cycle. This report chronicles several types of state programs that have been very helpful in helping to form and sustain bioscience industry development. Until a decade ago, the United States was the undisputed leader in bioscience industry development. However, a variety of factors such as low cost labor, speed of information dissemination, and available risk capital, has rapidly increased global competition for the industry. Europe and Asia, for example, are actively promoting opportunities for bioscience companies. State governments continue to understand this new dynamic of increased competition for developing the biosciences and are actively working to develop and promote to grow the industry within their states. According to the study "Technology, Talent and Capital: State Bioscience Initiatives 2008¹," the bioscience industry is a growing and vibrant sector of the U.S. economy, with more than 42,000 businesses employing 1.3 million people in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. Direct and indirect employment in the biosciences sector accounts for 7.5 million jobs.