Gov. Gregoires Baby, $350M Life Sciences Discovery Fund, Faces Possible Shutdown
Summary
Gregoire’s Baby, $350M Life Sciences Discovery Fund, Faces Possible Shutdown Xconomy Seattle — [[Updated at 11:10 am Pacific with comment from Governor’s spokesman]] One of the centerpieces of Gov.This pot of money, which comes from the state’s settlement with tobacco companies, was established in 2005 by lawmakers as a way to strengthen Washington’s competitive standing as a research and development hotspot for biotech and medical devices.The Life Sciences Discovery Fund, which really started ramping up just last year, has invested in a variety of promising research projects for vaccines, heart defibrillators to treat cardiac arrest, and improved ways to deliver biotech drugs into cells.But it can’t claim to have discovered the next penicillin, and even in the best of times it would take years to show payoffs in new products, jobs, and regional prestige that such a program might be able to use to defend itself.Last fall, in the late October heat of her re-election campaign against Republican Dino Rossi, while the economy was crumbling, she reminded biotech executives that she went to bat for them … Next Page »