[JayCT]

Please return to the topic of the OP which is the Economic Climate of Connecticut. JayCT, Moderator

[BPt111]

The Day - Pfizer move abroad puts wealthiest investors in line for tax hit - News from southeastern Connecticut

[BPt111]

"Connecticut's biotechnology industry is small but growing. Researchers and businesses are looking in many directions to fill jobs in information technology, gene research, software development and numerous other fields in life sciences."

"We've gotten a tremendous amount of people that have offers from Google and Facebook and Netflix because they're great computer scientists and we've been able to get them because when they work with us they can make a device that could save the life of somebody they love," Rothberg said of his many inventions."

"Connecticut is looking to Rothberg and other scientists and life science business owners to help diversify the state's economy after losing thousands of well-paid manufacturing jobs and confronting a worrisome trend of rising low-wage jobs. The bioscience industry, home to highly skilled jobs paying close to $100,000 a year or more, is becoming increasingly attractive to policy makers."

"State officials successfully lured Maine-based Jackson Laboratory to Farmington to boost genomic research, and the New Haven and shoreline areas — fueled by Yale University and Yale-New Haven Hospital — are developing as a center for the state's growing bioscience industry."

"Connecticut ranks near the top in research and development funding for bioscience and federal money earmarked for research. But, coinciding with the Great Recession, employment fell more steeply from 2007 to 2012 than in the U.S. The bioscience industry in the state employed 24,194 workers in 2012, down nearly 13 percent from 2007, while the drop nationally was about a half percent."

"The one exception was the medical device and equipment industry in which employment rose nearly 4 percent from 2007 to 2012. The U.S. increase was 1.4 percent."

"Connecticut's bioscience workforce compares well with larger neighbors Massachusetts, which employs 77,817 workers in the industry, and New York, with 76,070 employees."

Connecticut's Small But Growing Biotechnology Industry Looks To Fill Jobs - Hartford Courant

[Sigequinox]

Originally Posted by BPt111

"Connecticut's biotechnology industry is small but growing. Researchers and businesses are looking in many directions to fill jobs in information technology, gene research, software development and numerous other fields in life sciences."

"We've gotten a tremendous amount of people that have offers from Google and Facebook and Netflix because they're great computer scientists and we've been able to get them because when they work with us they can make a device that could save the life of somebody they love," Rothberg said of his many inventions."

"Connecticut is looking to Rothberg and other scientists and life science business owners to help diversify the state's economy after losing thousands of well-paid manufacturing jobs and confronting a worrisome trend of rising low-wage jobs. The bioscience industry, home to highly skilled jobs paying close to $100,000 a year or more, is becoming increasingly attractive to policy makers."

"State officials successfully lured Maine-based Jackson Laboratory to Farmington to boost genomic research, and the New Haven and shoreline areas — fueled by Yale University and Yale-New Haven Hospital — are developing as a center for the state's growing bioscience industry."

"Connecticut ranks near the top in research and development funding for bioscience and federal money earmarked for research. But, coinciding with the Great Recession, employment fell more steeply from 2007 to 2012 than in the U.S. The bioscience industry in the state employed 24,194 workers in 2012, down nearly 13 percent from 2007, while the drop nationally was about a half percent."

"The one exception was the medical device and equipment industry in which employment rose nearly 4 percent from 2007 to 2012. The U.S. increase was 1.4 percent."

"Connecticut's bioscience workforce compares well with larger neighbors Massachusetts, which employs 77,817 workers in the industry, and New York, with 76,070 employees."

Connecticut's Small But Growing Biotechnology Industry Looks To Fill Jobs - Hartford Courant

Rothberg is an unbelievably successful biotech entrepreneur and I was wondering if CT would ever "tap" his wealth of knowledge and power. During the boston "hub" discussions, I mentioned some of the common characteristics shared between hubs. One of them was "a passionate industry visionary who is both able and willing to work with local and state government to nurture the growth and success of the hub". Well, the only person who came to mind for me in CT was Jonathan Rothberg. He absolutely has the passion and the credibility, all CT has to do is make him "willing" to commit to their vision.

He founded 454 Life Sciences, a company whose work was so revolutionary my job today probably wouldn't exist had 454 never been born. Although that technology is already obsolete, it lead to the commercialization of "massively parallel" DNA sequencing techniques, which has transformed genetics into the big data "genomics" era. Ion Torrent, another massively parallel sequencing technology developed by Rothberg is located in Guilford. It was purchased by Life Technologies and then Life Tech was aquired by thermo fisher. The Ion Torrent brand is nowhere near market share of Illumina--the biggest name in the biz--but it's still a promising technology. The real question is, will Thermo Fisher keep the Guilford location open long term? A few colleagues of mine there share some fears. Things seem stable enough right now, but Thermo Fisher could consolidate the operation to any number of their R&D labs.

Hopefully Rothberg gets more involved and schools these buffoons on how to execute the biotech industry correctly...and cost efficiently...I don't think most of us involved in CTs molecular biology/genetics industry share his enthusiasm. But we don't have $500million dollars in the bank to hire legal and PR staff to tell us what to say, hehe.

Like I've said before, I believe the next 100 years for biotech will look much like the last 100 years did for pharma. It's time for states, cities, companies etc to stake their claim and establish their dominance. Biotech will be a gigantic part of the future economy. Will CT be apart of it?

[hartford_renter]

Like I've said before, I believe the next 100 years for biotech will look much like the last 100 years did for pharma. It's time for states, cities, companies etc to stake their claim and establish their dominance. Biotech will be a gigantic part of the future economy. Will CT be apart of it?

How do you want states & cities to stake their claim exactly?

CT has staked its claim on high taxes high spending and a bloated welfare state. Companies are therefore fleeing

If I were a start up I would choose Texas or the south, low taxes and low regulation

[Sigequinox]

Originally Posted by hartford_renter

How do you want states & cities to stake their claim exactly?

CT has staked its claim on high taxes high spending and a bloated welfare state. Companies are therefore fleeing

If I were a start up I would choose Texas or the south, low taxes and low regulation

Can't tell if serious...using pharma as a model/analogy, we are talking about a potential workforce in the hundreds of thousands and an annual revenue of nearly 1 trillion dollars. i think the ways states and cities can benefit from that are quite obvious...

Texas is definitely climbing in the tech space. The south has a long way to go, but with the growing economy down there they are certainly setting themselves up to be able to spend money on big projects. It's not all about taxes, regulation and business friendly policy are just as, if not more important. Although CT seems to fail at all of the above.

Like I said to someone on here about the 300million I-84 road upgrade, "that's a project for a state that's booming, not struggling". Places like Austin, Nashville, Atlanta etc can not only afford infrastructure projects like that, but can JUSTIFY it. It's not a "if we build it they will come" philosophy. They have the money to build it BECAUSE the people have already arrived and juiced up the economy. CT is royally screwed. I'm no economist, but I'm not betting my life and future on CT sorting itself out. 14 more months...

[BobNJ1960]

Originally Posted by Sigequinox

Can't tell if serious...using pharma as a model/analogy, we are talking about a potential workforce in the hundreds of thousands and an annual revenue of nearly 1 trillion dollars. i think the ways states and cities can benefit from that are quite obvious...

Texas is definitely climbing in the tech space. The south has a long way to go, but with the growing economy down there they are certainly setting themselves up to be able to spend money on big projects. It's not all about taxes, regulation and business friendly policy are just as, if not more important. Although CT seems to fail at all of the above.

Like I said to someone on here about the 300million I-84 road upgrade, "that's a project for a state that's booming, not struggling". Places like Austin, Nashville, Atlanta etc can not only afford infrastructure projects like that, but can JUSTIFY it. It's not a "if we build it they will come" philosophy. They have the money to build it BECAUSE the people have already arrived and juiced up the economy. CT is royally screwed. I'm no economist, but I'm not betting my life and future on CT sorting itself out. 14 more months...

14 months until graduation I assume. I do agree on the cities you named.growing leaps and bounds and plenty of money to fund new things.

[Sigequinox]

Originally Posted by BobNJ1960

14 months until graduation I assume. I do agree on the cities you named.growing leaps and bounds and plenty of money to fund new things.

finish masters in like 7 months. Will continue with PhD though, which takes me "anywhere but here", in 14 months. Vanderbilt is my #1 choice since it takes care of both graduate school and our ideal relocation. Baylor college of medicine in houston is #2. We look forward to taking our 5 years of industry experience, our 130k salary and our advanced degrees elsewhere

[Mr_250]

Hate to say it but two more companies announcing lay offs today. Mass mutual in enfield and boehringer ingelheim in Danbury.

Nothing to do with CT economic climate but will have impact on tax base. Well over 100 jobs lost in total.

Do not like to see this. But side note, went driving around yesterday (mall was one of our stops) and it was packed with people. I didn't buy anything and I talked my wife out of buying anything. Lol but people were spending money. From all the reports I've read regarding job losses in Connecticut one would think no one has money but it looks like the total opposite.

Either people are spending and not savings, going into debt or simply CT is doing better than I though.

[Henry10]

Originally Posted by hartford_renter

How do you want states & cities to stake their claim exactly?

CT has staked its claim on high taxes high spending and a bloated welfare state. Companies are therefore fleeing

If I were a start up I would choose Texas or the south, low taxes and low regulation

Biotech jobs are knowledge / science kind of jobs, and for that you need strong universities nearby.

The South has made some strides, but it may get even better at competing with schools in the North-East.

Originally Posted by Sigequinox

finish masters in like 7 months. Will continue with PhD though, which takes me "anywhere but here", in 14 months. Vanderbilt is my #1 choice since it takes care of both graduate school and our ideal relocation. Baylor college of medicine in houston is #2. We look forward to taking our 5 years of industry experience, our 130k salary and our advanced degrees elsewhere

Vanderbilt is a very generous university, and having the prettiest campus doesn't hurt. It has for years tried to openly attract smart NY Jewish students (like yourself), and it has gotten in trouble for its bias, but that's not here or there.