Oregon is Building America’s Biotech Future
On a Friday in late September, a federal biotech commissioner's day in Oregon started at a DNA factory, included a tour through a state-of-the-art therapeutics plant and ended in a classroom lab. The visit highlighted the breadth of Oregon’s capabilities in biotech and gave local employers and educators a chance to showcase how they are preparing Oregonians for careers in this growing industry.
Oregon Life Sciences organized the visit with Twist Bioscience, Genentech, Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) Oregon State University (OSU) and the University of Oregon (UO) as planning partners. Commissioner Paul Arcangeli and Rep. Andrea Salinas toured Twist and met with industry and academic leaders before ending the day at Portland Community College's bioscience lab. Arcangeli also visited Genentech's Hillsboro campus, where a planned $750 million expansion will add U.S. medicine production capacity. The visit gave the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology (NSCEB) a close look at Oregon's contribution to an industry Congress has identified as essential to national security. The National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology was created by Congress to advise on how the United States stays ahead in biotechnology. It sunsets on December 31.
Oregon’s strength comes from connections among our semiconductor and biotech industries as well as public and private partners working together for the advancement of human health. Much of the training that prepares someone for a semiconductor fab also prepares them for a biomanufacturing line. Oregon is home to nearly a tenth of the nation's semiconductor workforce.] Few states can offer that experience in precision manufacturing that differentiates our state and provides a strong base on which to further build its biotechnology industry.
Our top tier universities exemplify our differentiation. OSU, UO and OHSU presented how they move discoveries from the lab toward patients. Days earlier, Phil and Penny Knight committed $1 billion toward establishing a college of engineering at UO. With Oregon expecting about 2,500 engineering openings a year, that investment addresses a pressing need. Community colleges and apprenticeship programs provide additional routes into the industry, working with employers to teach the skills needed on the job.
As more companies take root here, we need to give them room to grow. For a young company developing a medicine, that can mean access to specialized facilities capable of producing materials for human trials. Shared manufacturing facilities would help more Oregon companies expand close to the researchers and employees who built them. Reliable federal research funding would also help entrepreneurs plan their work and bring promising discoveries closer to market.
Oregon's congressional delegation can help by carrying the Commission’s work forward after its authority expires on December 31.
First, we ask our delegation and the next Congress to sustain federal support for community college and apprenticeship programs. Second, invest in shared biomanufacturing and scale-up capacity. Third, make early-stage funding timely and predictable. These investments would help Oregon employers hire locally and give growing companies more reasons to stay and expand here.
Congress has already acted on commission recommendations through the defense authorization signed last December. The Commission's report also informs Oregon Life Sciences’ framework for our work with state and federal policymakers. Continued federal support would build on investments already underway in Oregon.
The state is playing its critical role. Alongside private investments such as the Knight gift, the statewide Life Sciences Competitiveness Task Force, which Oregon Life Sciences co-convenes with the Oregon Business Council brings industry, universities and state government together to identify what companies need to grow here. That work will help guide Oregon’s own decisions about workforce development and manufacturing investment.
The September visit showed federal leaders what Oregon has to offer. Companies such as Twist Biosciences and Genentech are making products here that matter well beyond our state and federal borders, and our robust schools are preparing students to share in that growth. We urge Congress to build on this strong groundwork, supporting America's life science developed and manufactured in Oregon.