Judy Newman has a timely article on the state of Madison’s biotech industry:

The biotech hub took a big hit last week with the news that PowderJect Vaccines in Middleton will close, wiping out the jobs of 88 employees, many of them highly educated, specialized scientists and technologists. And it’s not the only local biotech that has pared its staff or even disappeared in recent years. <

There are several issues here:

• The biggest issue: Risk taking, attitude (compare to California, Colorado, Oregon & Washington)
• Money (California’s biotech money is a completely different world)
• Again, we need more people that are willing to take a risk (and fail in some cases)
• I doubt that additional state backed funding schemes will make any difference at all…