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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Governor signs bill creating biotechnology fund

Rebecca Cook Associated Press

SEATTLE – Fulfilling one of her main campaign promises, Gov. Christine Gregoire on Thursday signed a bill creating a “life sciences discovery fund” to encourage medical and agricultural research in Washington state.

The fund will start with $350 million in state money from the state’s 1998 settlement with the tobacco industry, which Gregoire negotiated. Gregoire has predicted that private and federal matching grants will build the fund to $1 billion.

“This is a historic day,” Gregoire said as she signed the bill at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, surrounded by lobbyists, lawmakers and at least two Nobel Prize winners.

Supporters said the investment will benefit the state in two ways: by encouraging potentially lifesaving research, and by creating jobs in scientific research labs. Washington state currently ranks fifth in the nation for biotechnology research.

“It will assure our young investors that Washington is a good place to live and a good place to be scientists,” said Dr. E. Donnall Thomas, who won the 1990 Nobel Prize in medicine for his work on bone marrow transplants.

The life sciences fund could help research into vaccines and treatment for diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, said Jim Gore, chief operating officer of the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute. Especially for diseases that primarily hurt Third World countries, Gore said it can be tough to find investors willing to help transform raw discoveries into finished medicines.

“It’s surprising how the absence of a very small amount of funds to translate research discoveries into applications has been a hurdle,” Gore said. He said the life sciences fund should help “a very wide range of currently unfunded but potentially very valuable and productive research efforts.”

The bill passed by just one vote in the Senate, and only after heavy lobbying by Gregoire. Republicans had added a human cloning ban to the bill, but the state House stripped it out, and most Senate Republicans wouldn’t support the bill without it.

Sen. Joyce Mulliken, R-Ephrata, said during her floor speech that the private and public money should be separated, so that taxpayers didn’t end up paying for research they didn’t agree with, such as embryonic stem cell research.

The bill’s supporters praised Gregoire’s tenacity in fighting for the measure.

“This bill wouldn’t have made it out if the governor didn’t personally intervene,” said Rep. Jeff Morris, D-Anacortes.

Gregoire’s next task will be to appoint a board that will decide which researchers get grants from the life sciences fund.