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Scripps to handle spinoffs out west

The role of turning inventions into viable businesses will remain in California, the institute's president says.

By KRIS HUNDLEY
Published January 28, 2005

ORLANDO - Dr. Richard Lerner, president of Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., quietly dropped a bombshell on investors here Thursday when he said his organization would not be opening a technology transfer office at its new Florida campus.

Lerner's comments, made at the end of a speech at the Florida Venture Forum's annual conference, indicated that the role of turning Scripps' inventions into viable businesses would remain in California. That made many of the investors, accountants and lawyers in the audience wonder if the much-touted spinoff benefits from Scripps would be siphoned immediately out of state.

They fear that if Scripps relies on its established West Coast relationships for financing, management and services of spinoff companies, Florida will not benefit nearly as fully as if those companies remained in the state. Lerner, while not addressing these concerns directly, assured the nearly 1,000 attendees that Scripps' expansion to Palm Beach County has brought invaluable attention to Florida from outside investors, drug companies and other prestigious research institutes.

"Fifty percent of what Florida will get out of this, it has already got," Lerner said. "The world venture community understands now that Florida is a serious player."

Lerner also refused to be drawn into the controversy over the proposed permanent site of Scripps' Florida campus, which is being challenged by antisprawl and environmental groups. Asked if lawsuits opposing the proposed Mecca Farms site in western Palm Beach County were a distraction to Scripps, which is supposed to break ground in the spring, Lerner said, "Right now it's okay. But there will come a time when the world will say, "Is it ever going to get done?' And if that question surfaces, it will hurt."

The Scripps expansion is being underwritten with $569-million in state and county money. The Florida campus will focus on moving potential drugs to market faster, using high-tech screening equipment that will be installed at Scripps' temporary lab in Jupiter this summer.

[Last modified January 28, 2005, 00:20:16]