About two dozen Pennsylvania biotechnology entrepreneurs gathered outside Philadelphia in 1989 to hear why they should form a trade association that would tell the story of their nascent industry.
Dennis M. “Mickey” Flynn was there and recently recalled, “We did not look like we’d amount to too much.”
After all, traditional pharmaceutical companies were the dominant force in new drug development. Centocor Inc., the Philadelphia region’s first biotech firm, was only about 10 years old with no drug approvals. Cephalon Inc., now the region’s largest independent biopharmaceutical firm, had started only two years before.
Flynn was elected chairman and president of the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Association at that inaugural meeting. It had no money, and was run by executive director Jeff Davidson out of State College until it moved to Malvern in 1998.
By the end of 2009, the renamed Pennsylvania Bio has 378 members and is run by a professional staff headed by Flynn, who returned for a second tour as president in 2005.
Flynn, who will turn 69 in May, last week announced that he will step down as of June 30. Christopher Molineaux, 44, a veteran of the communications teams at Centocor and Johnson & Johnson, will succeed him.
Since September, Molineaux has been senior vice president for membership services at the nonprofit trade group. During a year when many other business organizations lost membership, Pennsylvania Bio had a net gain of 32 members, Flynn said.
According to its latest filing with the IRS, Pennsylvania Bio had revenue of $1.51 million for 2008, with $741,750 of that coming from membership dues. An additional $598,180 was generated from running a series of life-sciences educational and networking meetings.
With the biotech industry accounting for more than 77,000 direct jobs in Pennsylvania, it no longer seems necessary to get the word out about the business, but Flynn begs to differ. Now, the industry faces workforce training and transition issues that it couldn’t have imagined back in the late ’80s.
Lack of small “incubator” space also remains a priority. Flynn said Pennsylvania Bio and the University City Science Center are working to establish a biotech incubator in Chester County. The science center currently operates one in West Philadelphia.
Mike Armstrong, a business editor and writer for nearly two decades, is the Inquirer's business columnist and PhillyInc blog editor. Contact Mike via e-mail or at 215-854-2980
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