MIT-Related Firms Driving Biotech Industry

Cambridge (AP)--The booming field of biotechnology can trace much of its success to research and graduates of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a new study shows.

The study, to be released today, shows 45 biotechnology companies nationwide and 30 in Massachusetts alone either were founded by MIT alumni or faculty or licensed technology patented by the university.

And with combined revenues of $3 billion, those companies were responsible for nearly a quarter of the $12.7 billion in revenue generated by U.S. biotech firms in 1994.

The study, "MIT, the Federal Government and the Biotechnology Industry: A Successful Partnership," was conducted by the Cambridge university itself. At a time when federal grants are shriveling or threatened, it makes the point that grants for scientific research often generate commercial spinoffs.

For example, nine of the top 10 best-selling drugs in 1994 were developed by Amgen Inc., Biogen Inc., and Genentech Inc.--all companies with founders who have ties to MIT either as alumni or professors.

"Obviously, there are other universities involved in biotechnology," MIT spokesperson Kenneth Campbell said today. "This is basically looking at what one university is doing and has done."

MIT was founded 134 years ago on the premise that science should have practical applications in the real world, Campbell said.

MIT researchers were the first to chemically synthesize penicillin. Five MIT scientists have won Nobel prizes for basic discoveries that today are the basis for manipulating genes and DNA to treat the human race's worst maladies.

Most of the research is federally funded. Of the $85 million in biological research done yearly at MIT, $75 million is underwritten by federal agencies like the National Institutes of Health or the National Science Foundation.

Public funding of the research has paid off for the country as a whole not only in the form of medical breakthroughs, but also in the training of future engineers and scientists, according to the study.

The university also has aggressively patented developments made in its laboratories. The federal government awards MIT more than 100 patents yearly, 30 to 40 of them in biotechnology alone, the study said.

Meanwhile, the university's technology licensing office has sold the use of the research to more than 100 biotech companies since 1986, helping the firms attract more than $630 million in seed money from investors.

In Massachusetts, 30 of the state's 155 biotech companies are linked directly to MIT graduates, faculty or technology. Together these compa- nies accounted for 3,200 jobs and $520 million in revenues in 1994--a sizeable chunk of the state's 15,000 biotech jobs and $1.8 billion in revenue.

"When seen in the context of the overall economic picture in Massachusetts in the last 10 years, these figures stand out even more," the study said. "While defense-related industries have seen significant cut-backs and computer and other high tech companies have been hit hard by global competition and industry shake-outs, the Massachusetts biotechnology industry has steadily grown."

The Massachusetts Biotechnology Council estimates the industry will expand to 20,000 jobs statewide by 2000.

While Massachusetts is second only to California in the concentration of biotech firms, the study also traces MIT's influence to West Coast companies and others in Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Texas

"When seen in the context of the overall economic picture in Massachusetts in the last 10 years, these figures stand out even more," the study said. "While defense-related industries have seen significant cut-backs and computer and other high tech companies have been hit hard by global competition and industry shake-outs, the Massachusetts biotechnology industry has steadily grown."

The Massachusetts Biotechnology Council estimates the industry will expand to 20,000 jobs statewide by 2000.

While Massachusetts is second only to California in the concentration of biotech firms, the study also traces MIT's influence to West Coast companies and others in Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Texas