Biomedical research gets boost

OLYMPIA — Gov. Christine Gregoire on Thursday proposed a billion-dollar Life Sciences Discovery Fund for biomedical research, asserting that Washington can become a world leader in computer-assisted health and farm research.

Gregoire said she aims for Washington to join Boston and the San Francisco Bay area as the nation’s leaders in high-tech research and spinoff commercial applications. The state, including its research universities and “high-tech corridors,” is considered a major power, but needs to ramp up to the next level, she said.

Stem-cell research may be a big focus of the new project, Gregoire said.

The governor said the proposal could help Washington both through cutting-edge medicine and by expanding a biotech industry that generates thousands of jobs. Experts say anywhere from 20,000 to 100,000 jobs could be created over the next decade, she said.

She proposed using $350 million in bonus money that Washington is getting from the tobacco industry under terms of a $200 billion settlement that Gregoire negotiated. The money will arrive in $35 million annual payments, beginning in 2008. Gregoire said the seed money would easily leverage government and private sector matching grants that would build the fund to $1 billion.

A board of trustees would award grants to university, nonprofit organizations and the private sector.

Gregoire said the fund would be a perfect use of the tobacco bonus money, and that the state’s regular annual payments from the tobacco industry wouldn’t be affected. Those billions will go for smoking-cessation programs and health care.

The Democratic governor said the plan is the centerpiece of her economic development program. She had outlined it in broad strokes during the campaign, sometimes sparring with her Republican rival, Dino Rossi, over whether the state should get into stem-cell research and whether Gregoire was inflating the number of jobs the industry realistically will generate.

“The idea behind the Discovery Fund is to leave a real legacy by leveraging the bonus money from the tobacco settlement to transform the future of health care in the state of Washington and literally around the world,” she said.

The state’s universities, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and dozens of booming spin-off companies can collaborate to give the state an even higher profile, she said.

Gregoire’s plan requires legislative approval. She was joined at a news conference by Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, and other senior Democrats who back the proposal.

Gregoire also wants lawmakers to clear up an ethics law that sometimes makes it difficult to make commercial use of publicly financed research findings.

“We’ll be able to build our legacy of having world-class public and private research institutions by providing the glue that will more seamlessly transform our scientific breakthroughs into commercial products,” she said.

One recent example, she said, is Washington State University research that helped the Walla Walla region develop a booming wine industry.

Her proposal was praised by the Washington Biotechnology and Biomedical Association, and by the presidents of WSU and the University of Washington.

“With this, you are speeding up a moving train,” said WSU President V. Lane Rawlins. “The dream (of being a world leader) is not that far off.”

UW President Mark Emmert said the university already leads the nation in securing grants, and that Gregoire’s plan would leverage even more research dollars.

The legislation is Senate Bill 5581 and House Bill 1623.

Gregoire also urged the Legislature to approve a $52 million tax break for some small businesses.

The current threshold of $28,000 in annual income would be doubled to $56,000, exempting more companies from having to pay the business and occupation tax. About 25,000 businesses would pay little or no taxes.

She also proposed doubling to $100 million the Washington Link Deposit Program, which encourages banks to make low-interest loans to minority- and women-owned businesses.