Multi Sector Alliance To Strengthen Biotechnology Programs In Response To Economic Development Based On High Tech

Puerto Rico has the largest concentration of pharmaceutical industries in the world. A decade ago, the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez establish its undergraduate Industrial Biotechnology Program, to provide the human resources and skills needed for this kind of professional on the island. Currently, the program has 164 students (63% women) and graduated more than 36 professionals. Most recently, and in response to a multi-sector alliance created in Puerto Rico to help develop the island as a world class high tech center, known as the Puerto Rico TechnoEconomic Corridor (PRTEC), the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez, is developing a PhD program in Biotechnology. PRTEC’s goals are to retain jobs, attract new high tech businesses to the island, while supporting the development of an R&D tradition and the development of an entrepreneurial culture at all levels. This paper will describe the strategy to develop a Multi-Sector Alliance to Strengthen Biotechnology Programs in Response to Economic Development Based on High Tech that involves all stakeholders (government, academia and the private sector). At the undergraduate level, the goal of the biotech program is to prepare professionals capable of developing and advancing the biotechnology field contributing to the social-economical development of Puerto Rico. To achieve this goal its strategic plan focuses on 6 major tasks: curriculum, research, industry/government partnerships, dissemination and assessment. This unique and interdisciplinary program involves close collaboration with industrial partners, formal courses as well as research and industry experience. The PhD Program being developed also focuses on industrial partnerships as a key element with the development and the strengthening of four (4) Biotech Research Centers to capitalize and support technology and human capabilities needed by industry. The ultimate goal is the establishments of a worldwide known biotechnology clusters on the island and attract and retain new biotech entrepreneurs. The paper will address the integrated strategic plan (from undergraduate to graduate) as well as its assessment strategy to document outcomes, financing and barriers being addressed to achieve our goals. Puerto Rico’s current economic situation Puerto Rico has the largest concentration of pharmaceutical industries in the world as a result of the synergy between world-class managers, workforce and suppliers and preeminence as a global, tax-advantaged super-manufacturing center. The world’s leading pharmaceuticals and P ge 778.1 Proceedings of the 2002 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright ” 2002, American Society for Engineering Education biotech companies trust the successful product technology transfer, scale-up, manufacturing and quality control of their products to Puerto Rico human capital. A location analysis for pharmaceutical manufacturing indicated that PR has the highest location quotient (a measure of the relative importance of an economic activity in a particular geographic area compared to its importance in the US economy as a wholebetween PR and states in the mainland) of 9.19, followed by New Jersey with 5.08. Furthermore, the location quotient for selected competitive clusters in Puerto Rico positioned drugs at the lead. Pharma exports reached $28.6 billion in Fiscal 2001, up 245% from Fiscal 1997 (Figure 1). Puerto Rico exported more pharmaceutical products to foreign countries than any states (Figure 2). The continued stability of the pharma cluster is critical to our fiscal revenues, local private sector earnings and exports. Nine of the top ten drugs in terms of the 2000 world sales were manufactured in the island. An economic analysis by the Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company, PRIDCO, indicated that most of the job losses in the past, have occurred in laborintensive textiles, apparel, leather and canned tuna. However, pharmaceutical manufacturing has gained over 3,000 jobs in a period of 5 years. This has been in part due to pharmaceutical and biotech utilization of the disclosure of the human genome; the emerging fields of proteomics and bioinformatics, a needed tool for information management and interpretation to deepen the knowledge, therapeutic scope and effective use of blockbusters manufactured locally. During 2000 the biotechnology world market had a record breaking of $441 billion with an increase of 41% over the previous year. Of the present global pharma products an estimated 16% are of biotechnological origin or are related to biotechnology; this is expected to rise to 30 percent by 2005 and 50% by 2010 2 as enabling technologies such as genomics, proteomics, cellomics, combinatorial chemistry and high throughput allow pharmaceuticals and biotechnology companies to focus on specific therapeutic areas and disease knowledge required in the development of protein pharmaceuticals, protective and therapeutic vaccines, advanced synthesis, bio-transformation and formulation .Thus, understanding the new era of genomicsbased medicine, genetically enhanced microorganisms, cloning, stem cell, biomarkers and the rest will require a concerted efforts on the part of government, industries, universities, research organizations, the analyst community and the media. Pockets of biotechnology are seen as very important for economic development in various regions of the world. Biotech investment in Puerto Rico comes from large, established leaders with a previous presence on-island. Last April 2001 Lilly announced a US $250 MM investment in the first large biotech manufacturing facility in Puerto Rico, a Humalog ‚ recombinant insulin manufacturing plant to launch inhaled insulin in alliance with drug delivery company Alkermes. This investment is now estimated at $450 million. Inhaled insulin is the initial battleground 0 5,000 10,000 15,000 20,000 25,000 30,00