Biotechnology Center celebrated

04/18/03

By SHELLY HASKINS
Times Business Editor shaskins@htimes.com

Three Huntsville companies celebrated the opening of a new biotechnology complex in Cummings Research Park on Thursday, calling the move a step toward rebuilding and expanding the city's base of life sciences companies.

The 24,000-square-foot Huntsville Biotechnology Center at 6705 Odyssey Drive houses SourceCF, Open Biosystems and Applied Genomics - three separate businesses that began sharing office resources, scientific knowledge and business ideas in October.

The hope is to establish a "critical mass" of biotech companies in Huntsville, to take advantage of what's seen as the hottest emerging business sector.

Huntsville lost 250 biotechnology jobs last April when Invitrogen Corp. closed the former Research Genetics operation here it bought from Huntsville businessman Jim Hudson.

With the 51 jobs provided by the three residents of the Huntsville Biotechnology Center, the city now has an estimated 300 biotechnology jobs, and the number is expected to grow as the new companies expand. Hudson said about 80 former Research Genetics employees have found jobs at local biotech concerns. The largest biotech company in Huntsville now is Nektar Therapeutics, a drug developer started by Hudson colleague Dr. Milton Harris, which now has more than 150 employees.

"Huntsville has always been a technology center and it's always been the goal to stay cutting edge," said Rob Seitz, CEO of Applied Genomics. "We look forward to being a part of that growth and helping other companies grow as well."

Mike Walters, CEO

of SourceCF, and Brian Pollock, CEO of Open Biosystems, said the Huntsville Biotechnology Center hopes to add more life sciences companies as the sector grows here.

"If there's a larger goal, it's that at the end of the day we establish a critical mass of biotechnology companies here," Pollock said.

Dr. Malcolm Portera, chancellor of the University of Alabama system, attended the ceremonies Thursday, hoping to establish ties with Huntsville biotech firms that can employ University of Alabama graduates from its Huntsville, Tuscaloosa and Birmingham campuses.

Here's what the three tenants of Huntsville Biotechnology Center do:

- Applied Genomics, founded in 2000 by Seitz, develops antibodies that researchers use in clinical development of cancer drugs, and that doctors use in diagnosing and treating breast cancer. To date, the company has evaluated 200 antibodies, 40 of which have been selected for their ability to diagnose breast cancer. The company also has "substantially completed" diagnostic antibodies for subclassifying lun

g and colon cancer. The company holds nine patents relating to cancer subclassification. It has 13 employees.

- SourceCF, founded in July 2001 by former Johnson & Johnson executives Walters and Norm Stanley, began as a company that provided marketing and promotion services for companies that offer treatments and other products for the 30,000 sufferers of cystic fibrosis, a disease characterized by frequent respiratory infections. At the ribbon cutting Thursday, Walters announced the formation of a new subsidiary called SourceCF Clinical Research and Development, which will develop its own treatment systems for cystic fibrosis. The new products include a vitamin for adult cystic fibrosis patients, and two high protein cookie bars. It has 16 employees.

- Open Biosystems, founded in July by Pollock, develops DNA clones and custom antibodies that researchers use to unlock the functions of human genes. The company currently has a collection of more than 7 million DNA clones, representing organisms from humans to mice, frogs and fruit flies. Pollock said the company provides researchers the source material without imposing restrictions that could hinder the commercial development of drugs. "We're sort of the Library of Congress of genes," he said. It has 22 employees.

As the three company CEOs used oversized scissors to cut the traditional ribbon on the new center, Hudson stood under the comfort of a shade tree, smiling like a father at a college graduation.

Hudson founded synthetic DNA-maker Research Genetics in 1987, which grew to be the state's largest biotechnology company before Invitrogen bought it for $126 million in stock in 2000 and closed the Huntsville labs last April.

Since Hudson sold the company, several fledgling biotech companies started by former Research Genetics employees have begun to flourish here. Seitz, of Applied Genomics, and Pollock, of Open Biosystems, were former Research Genetics scientists, and the two have hired dozens of their former co-workers. Hudson is an investor in Applied Genomics, but hasn't been allowed to talk to Seitz about business in the past year because of a noncompete contract he signed when Invitrogen bought Research Genetics. He has no stake at all, besides goodwill for his friend Pollock, in Open Biosystems.

"It's been very good for them," Hudson said. "They were kicked out of the nest and had to grow on their own. I feel very proud of my employees and what they've done."

Hudson's noncompete contract expired in February, but he doesn't plan to get back into the biotechnology field any time soon.

"I can't rule it out, but I don't have any immediate plans to get back in it," said Hudson, who has busied himself with downtown redevelopment. His company, CityScapes, has opened three Huntsville restaurants and renovated the historic Terry Hutchens Building on Clinton Avenue for loft apartments and retail space.

Plans for a larger development of restaurants and entertainment centers, called Electric Avenue, fell through when CityScapes failed to get federal tax credits to help pay for the project.