Biotech buyers’ remorse
June 30th, 2010 by admin
A recent article in the Sun Sentinel described how the Palm Beach County Commission is struggling to deal with an enormous budget shortfall. In 2006, when the economy was in better shape, commissioners spent $300+ million to lure The Scripps Research Institute to the county. Today, with the economic situation much different, the county is facing $25 million in debt payments in 2010-2011 on money borrowed to build Scripps’ laboratories. County Commission Chairman Burt Aaronson said that the commission probably would not have given Scripps all that money, “if we knew any of this was coming.” The newspaper coined a new phrase: “Biotech buyers’ remorse.”
Across the state, Collier County Commissioners are debating a proposal to spend $130 million of taxpayer’s money to bring The Jackson Laboratory to the county (the money would match $130 million from the state). In return, Jackson promises to hire at least 200 people over the next seven years. Supporters of the plan have made wild predictions that The Jackson Laboratory would also attract to Collier County other biotech businesses, universities, hospitals, create thousands of high-paying jobs, and diversify the local economy. This has not happened yet in Palm Beach County.
What is The Jackson Laboratory? The Jackson Laboratory is headquartered in Bar Harbor, Maine. They make most of their money by selling genetically engineered mice. A lot of them. Last year, they sold 2.5 million mice to 16,000 labs in 53 countries! Rich Woychik, president of Jackson Labs, described the laboratory simply, “We’re currently the mouse place.”
Fortunately, there has been a lot of skepticism in the local community about the proposal to use taxpayer money to support the expansion of a corporation that reported $166 million in revenue in 2009. But so far there has been little concern about the work of the laboratory itself. The mouse is the most common animal in research labs. Mice are intelligent, social animals who suffer in the isolation of the laboratory.
The Collier County Board of County Commissioners is scheduled to hold a public hearing about The Jackson Laboratory on July 27. If you are a Collier County resident, please consider attending the meeting and speaking out against the proposal (contact ARFF for details).
Even if you aren’t a county resident, please contact the commission and politely ask them not to use public funds to support an expansion of animal research in Florida. Contact:
Commissioner Frank Halas
E-mail: FrankHalas@colliergov.netCommissioner Jim Coletta
E-mail: JimColetta@colliergov.netCommissioner Fred W. Coyle
E-mail: FredCoyle@colliergov.netCommissioner Donna Fiala
E-mail: DonnaFiala@colliergov.netCommissioner Tom Henning
E-mail: TomHenning@colliergov.net