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Pictured, from left: Scott McMurray, Deputy Commissioner, Georgia Quick Start; Dave Penake, CEO, Saol Therapeutics; Margie Battle, Manager, Georgia BioScience Training Center; Megan Heaphy, Director, Biotech Teacher Training Initiative, Georgia Bio; Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA); Calvin Johnson; Scott Frank, President & CEO, AT&T Intellectual Property; Melissa Carter, Director, Policy & Public Affairs, Georgia Bio; David Lachmann, BIO’s federal team; Steve Damon Chief Executive Officer, Micro Biomedical; Maria Thacker-Goethe, President & CEO, Georgia Bio. (Photo courtesy of Georgia Bio.)
Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) discussed the economic impact of Georgia’s bioscience sector during a tour of the Georgia Bioscience Training Center. He joined Georgia Bio President and CEO Maria Thacker Goethe, David Lachmann of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) federal team, and members of the Atlanta biotech community.
As the meeting highlighted, the state’s biosciences sector employs more than 38,000 Georgians across more than 3,000 establishments to make it a leading source of jobs and economic activity in the state.
Georgia bioscience jobs are highly paid—and include work in research testing, medical labs, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, and medical devices. The state’s pharmaceutical sector has an average annual wage of $116,610.
Some of those workers are Georgia Bioscience Training Center graduates who have acquired the skills to meet the needs of the biomanufacturing sector without a four-year college degree.
“I am proud to represent the metro Atlanta area, which is a global leader in biotechnology innovation and manufacturing,” Rep. Johnson said. “It’s an important source of good jobs for our community and revolutionary cures for the world.”
The importance of IP
Rep. Johnson is a key leader on legislation affecting patent laws that are essential to biotech.
“As the ranking Democrat on the Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet, I look forward to working with my colleagues to ensure that our IP laws promote success for our startups, and access to cutting-edge treatments for patients,” he said.
As Dave Penake, CEO of BIO member Saol Therapeutics, explained during the tour, strong and enforceable intellectual property rights are necessary to ensure the success of early-stage companies, which must spend years in the lab without a product on the market. These companies fund their research and development through investors, who are interested two things: the potential of a company’s science and the strength of its patents. Without those legal protections, investors will look elsewhere.
Georgia has become a global leader in biosciences thanks to the effective collaboration between the government and the private sector.
The tour of the Georgia Bioscience Training Center provided an opportunity to discuss with a key policymaker how that model can continue to build a better future for Georgians and all Americans.
