As part of a series of aggressive initiatives to strengthen and grow the County’s vital bioscience community and preserve its role as a local and regional economic engine, Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett, working in conjunction with the County’s Department of Economic Development (DED), brought together the best and brightest from throughout the biotech industry to serve on the new Montgomery County Biosciences Task Force. Leggett joined the 34-member advisory group at its first meeting held this morning at DED.

Chaired by David Mott, former MedImmune CEO and now General Partner with New Enterprise Associates, the Task Force will help the County better leverage its competitive strengths, build stronger partnerships with the private sector, federal and state government, academia and other industry stakeholders, and work to attract new, large private sector companies with the resources to accelerate the commercialization of products and services.

“Despite this County’s 30-year history and success as a leading biotech hub now, more than ever, for us to remain a healthy economy and stay globally competitive in the evolving biosciences sector, we must do a better job at translating our rich asset base into products and commercial successes,” said Leggett. “The combined, vast experience and expertise of the Biosciences Task Force will serve as an important guiding light for the County as we look to capitalize on current and new bioscience-related initiatives, including strategic development opportunities on existing County-owned land to facilitate future biotech uses and priorities, namely at Site II in the eastern part of the County and in the Shady Grove area via our new Smart Growth Initiative.”

“It is clear that we have incredible Life Sciences assets in this county and many important advances in research and commercialization happen here every day,” said Council President Michael Knapp. “We also recognize that our competition is growing and we must rise to the challenge and push to achieve our ‘stretch goals’ in this field. I thank the members of the county’s BioScience Task Force for their time and energy in helping us craft our strategy for the future.”

The Task Force will help guide the County in making sure it has the proper strategies and tools in place to ensure the ongoing success and growth of this critical industry segment. Specifically, they will:

• Identify specific issues that should be incorporated into the State’s life sciences strategy so that Montgomery County’s interests are best represented and its investments and educational, industry and regulatory resources are capitalized;

• Ascertain how the County builds on and leads the vision and direction recommended for the life sciences industry by the Governor’s Life Sciences Advisory Board;

• Review an outline of the Montgomery County BioSciences Strategy and recommend direction, strategies and vehicles to ensure that the County is a global leader in the life sciences industry; and

• Review the County’s draft Biosciences Strategy and develop a strategic plan to better utilize and grow our asset base to help the County become a global leader in life sciences, clinical research, translational research and product delivery.

“Coming from MedImmune, which really exemplifies the great story of biotech growth and success here in Montgomery County, I find it very fitting that I now have this wonderful opportunity, thanks to the kind invitation by the County Executive, to work with such a talented and experienced group of colleagues from throughout the bioscience community,” said Mott. “Collectively, we will help ensure that Montgomery County maintains and enhances its competitive position as an international center for bioscience research and development.”

In 2007, the life sciences industry in Montgomery County generated combined revenues of $2.42 billion. It directly employed more than 12,000 private sector workers, and 48,000 in federal government agencies. The 2007 average private sector salary for the life sciences was over $88,000 – double the County-wide average for all jobs.

“We are fortunate to have amongst us world-class life sciences institutions, such as the NIH, FDA, NIST, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Human Genome Sciences, TIGR, Johns Hopkins University, and others. Given our significant assets, we have the potential to be the world’s leading center for biosciences, from discovery to production, to find cures for diseases and to improve life on earth,” said Dr. Pradeep Ganguly, director, Montgomery County Department of Economic Development. “However, the global bioscience industry has grown rapidly over the past 15 years. Other regions and nations are exponentially increasing their investment in biosciences. In order for us to be the world leader, we, as a nation and as Montgomery County, must translate the potential of science and discovery into marketable products, and we must be ready to make a more significant commitment to biosciences. That’s the vision for our Biosciences Task Force, and that is what we hope to achieve.”

The creation of a Biosciences Task Force is the latest in a series of initiatives to bolster the County’s biotech presence and expand its global position in this industry. Recently, the County partnered with Johns Hopkins University to present Bioscience 101, a two-hour seminar to educate County public officials on the science, technology, terminology and importance of the biotech industry. The County also recently celebrated the expansion of Wisconsin-based OpGen Technologies Inc., a recognized industry leader in single molecule DNA analysis and mapping, into a new 15,000-square foot headquarters facility in Gaithersburg.

As part of Leggett’s Smart Growth Initiative, many of the County’s public safety and related County agency facilities, warehousing and other resources would be consolidated in a new County location, which would optimize the efficiency of these agencies and free-up their existing sites to advance smart growth initiatives featuring transit-oriented mixed-use and biotech development projects.

Below is a listing of Biosciences Task Force members.

Members of the Montgomery County Biosciences Task Force

David Mott, Task Force Chair
General Partner
New Enterprise Associates

Chang Ahn
Chairman & CEO
RexAhn

Melvin Bernstein
Vice President, VPR-VP Research
University of Maryland

Bill Betrand
Executive VP, Legal Affairs & General Counsel
MedImmune, LLC

Ken Carter
President & CEO
Avalon Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Rita Colwell
CMPS-Institute for Advanced Computer Studies
University of Maryland

Christine Copple
President & CEO
Starise Ventures, Inc.

Jeffrey Cossman
Chief Scientific Officer
Critical Path Institute

Claire Driscoll
Director of Tech Transfer
Human Genome Research Institute

Lawrence Diamond
Senior Vice President, Mid-Atlantic Region
Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc.

Stewart Edelstein
Executive Director
Universities at Shady Grove

Dennis Fallen
Vice President & General Manager
Fisher BioServices

Paul Fischer
CEO
GenVec, Inc.

Jennie Hunter-Cevera
President
University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute

Dr. Brian Johnson
President
Montgomery College

Kazem Kazempour
President & CEO
Amarex Clinical Research

Jack Khattar
President
Supernus Pharmaceuticals

Rachel King
CEO
Glycomimetics

Scott Koenig
President & CEO
MacroGenics

Bruce Lee
President
TissueGene

Steven Linberg
Managing Director
Chiesi Pharmaceuticals

Lawrence Mahan
Biosciences Advisor
Dept. of Business & Economic Development

Steven Mayer
CEO
CoGenesys, Incorporated

Devinder Poonian
President & CEO
DP Clinical

Michael Richman
CEO
Amplimmune

Bill Robertson
President & CEO
Adventist Healthcare

Ted Roumel
Vice President
Research, Innovation and Commercialization
University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute

Jerald Sadoff
President
Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation

Robert Scheer
President
Scheer Partners, Inc.

Amita Shukla
Principal
New Enterprise Associates

Dr. Rahul Singhvi
President
Novavax

Dr. Roger Williams
CEO
U. S. Pharmacopeia

Richard Zakour
Executive Director
MdBio/MdBioFoundation

Scott Zeger
Vice Provost for Research
Johns Hopkins University