Biotech beefs up D.C. campaign

WASHINGTON - Biotech executives pressed the industry's case at the White House last week, telling a member of the president's staff that if the risk-reward ratio to investors is substantially altered, it could shatter the alliance between scientific talent and financial resources that has made the U.S. biotech industry pre-eminent in the world.

"The message was that the biotechnology industry is rather a unique industry because it has a special co-localization of talent and resources that has occurred in part because of the ability to have access to financial resources," said Leonard Schleifer, chairman, president and CEO of Regeneron Phamaceuticals Inc. "We can attract the kind of talent that's normally found only in universities to work in companies, and combine that talent with financial resources. That combination lets you do innovative things."...