When scientists conducted the first successful genetic engineering experiments in the 1970s, leaders in North Carolina paid attention. They realized that a potent new technology was emerging that could bring substantial economic and societal benefits.
They wanted North Carolina to seize this new opportunity called biotechnology.
The state’s General Assembly appointed a legislative study commission to determine how North Carolina could ensure long-term economic benefits from biotechnology. A yearlong study by the commission concluded that North Carolina needed a private, non-profit organization dedicated exclusively to biotechnology development.
Following that recommendation, state legislatures established the North Carolina Biotechnology Center in October 1984 as the world’s first government-sponsored biotechnology center. Many visionary leaders championed the initiative, including Gov. James B. Hunt, Lt. Gov. Robert B. Jordan, state Sen. Kenneth Royall and Sen. Gerry Hancock and state Representative Bobby Etheridge.
A Permanent Home
In the next year, the Biotechnology Center began hiring staff and developing programs to promote biotechnology research, education and business in support of its economic development mission. The organization moved from leased office space into permanent headquarters in January 1992.
The organization’s budget, staff and programs have grown over the years to meet the needs of the state’s expanding biotechnology community. The Biotechnology Center has a 60-member staff and a budget of $13.3 million.
As a neutral, non-partisan organization, the Biotechnology Center is well positioned to catalyze interactions among industry, academia and government for economic development. Working with these groups and many others, the Biotechnology Center is active at all points in the movement of biotechnology from the laboratory to the marketplace.
Diverse Leadership
Six leaders have helped to shape the Biotechnology Center's mission of nurturing a thriving bioscience industry:
- Laura Meagher - Acting Director, 1984;
- Richard J. Patterson - President, October 1984 - December 1986;
- Roy E. Morse - Interim President, 1987;
- Charles Hamner - President and CEO, February 1988 - March 2002;
- Leslie Alexandre - President and CEO, August 2002 - January 2007; and
- Norris Tolson - President and CEO, July 2007 - present.
Striving to Enhance
The Biotechnology Center is not a site for laboratory research. Nor is it a company incubator. Other organizations fulfill these roles. The Biotechnology Center strives to enhance, not duplicate, the efforts of other organizations.
Since its founding in 1984, the Biotechnology Center has invested about $200 million in the state’s biotechnology infrastructure. The sustained investment has paid substantial returns. North Carolina has since become the nation’s third leading state for biotechnology, according to Ernst & Young, with 55,000 people working at about 450 bioscience companies.