PPI on how to boost Biotech in New York: more jobs, better teamwork, fewer taxes

Arlene Weintraub writes on Xconomy.com how the just released Public Policy Institute’s report points to the importance of biopharma jobs on the state’s economy and what is needed in New York to create more jobs in this sector.

“In a scintillating report released today, the Public Policy Institute (PPI) of New York blasts the state’s leaders for failing to support the local biotechnology industry. New York ranks fifth in the nation in biotech employment, for example, and sixth in total capital expenditures made by the industry. And despite churning out more college graduates than any other state in the nation, New York’s biotech firms don’t provide enough high-paying jobs to get them excited about working in the industry, the PPI says

The report’s authors declare that New York’s stance towards biotech is “severely anemic in its care for its people, support for entrepreneurship, and economic development strategies.” Furthermore, they say, because of rapidly growing competition from other states—not to mention China, India, and Brazil—”the biopharmaceutical ecosystem in New York is growing weaker, and Albany and major local governments must act before the equivalent of a climatic cataclysm strikes the state.”

But the PPI’s goal isn’t to bully New York’s leaders. Rather it’s to present a plan of action for turning New York from a perennial also-ran to a world capital of biotech. “Our report makes specific recommendations of how to get us out of 38th place in annual growth,” said Heather Briccetti, the PPI’s acting president, during a panel discussion at the annual meeting of the New York Biotechnology Association (NYBA), just a few days before the report’s release. “We’ve identified this sector as one that the state needs to make a strong commitment to.”

To read more click here.

To read the report click here.