Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

County fouls climate for Moffitt deal

Hillsborough County commissioners are so quick to gig the city of Tampa they are unable to separate petty power plays from the chance to treat cancer and lure six-figure jobs. Just weeks after Tampa's H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute announced a deal with drug giant Merck to form a promising new research venture, commissioners soured the climate by challenging the city to throw more money toward the project. If the board scuttles the deal, it will hurt the community and embarrass itself, not Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio.

Moffitt and Merck, the world's No. 2 drugmaker, announced they would create a for-profit venture, M2GEN, to tailor cancer treatments to individual patients. Researchers will examine tumor tissue and clinical data to identify which drugs might best treat a patient's genetic "fingerprint." The work could save lives, raise Moffitt's profile by expanding its research mission and attract new bioscience industries to Tampa Bay.

Personalized medicine is a dynamic field that can transform a host area's health care and economic base. Even with $35-million in state and local subsidies, the Moffitt deal could return huge public benefits. The $20-million from the county will not drain its reserves, and that amount pales next to the quarter-billion dollars the county has committed the last decade to the area's professional sports franchises. Moffitt, a nonprofit, will own the subsidiary, clearing the way to pour any profits into new, cancer-fighting therapies. Merck is expected to invest at least $40-million and create more than 100 jobs at the start, with the potential to spin off hundreds more jobs and nearly $57-million in capital investment.

Economic development is the county's job, anyway. That's been true here and across the country. Counties generally have much greater financial wherewithal than cities to assemble the range of public incentives needed to land major employers. While Tampa's contribution, $500,000, would be small by comparison, this deal is unprecedented in monetary terms and the potential to change the landscape for jobs in our community. This money could mark a new day in the county's history of attracting quality employers. Leveraged right, it could create jobs in the struggling community near the north Tampa campus of the University of South Florida, where the county faces security, health care, transportation and housing needs.

Commissioners have gone out of their way to pick fights with Iorio. The board barred the city from a bus system review board and tried to withhold a new roof from the leaky Tampa Convention Center. Commissioners think the mayor gets too much good press, and they see the Moffitt deal as a chance to reassert their authority. But their concerns are less about fairness than ego and ensuring they have enough in the honey pot to fund their own pet projects. The public sees this clamoring for what it is - a test of whether the commission will step up and lead, work with the city toward a common goal and ensure any subsidies for Moffitt are responsibly spent.

[Last modified January 23, 2007, 23:12:01]