Governor visits Carlsbad to tout biotech industry

biotech as job creation...one of my favorite issues...go arnold...

As the state economy sputters, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was in Carlsbad yesterday to shine the spotlight on biotechnology, an industry that is growing.

“We are here today to talk about job creation,” Schwarzenegger said after touring a stem cell lab and manufacturing facilities at Invitrogen, a publicly traded biotechnology company that makes tools for drug-discovery research.
While the state's unemployment rate has climbed to 6.1 percent, biotechnology has continued to sprout and grow, he said. Invitrogen, for example, has grown 5.5 percent in the past year and is expanding its manufacturing capacity by 50,000 square feet and hiring an additional 200 workers, Schwarzenegger said.
In California, 240,000 people are employed in 5,500 life-science companies, which include those that make therapies, medical devices, diagnostics and tools. The industry attracted $3.2 billion in venture-capital investment last year, which was half the nationwide total, the governor pointed out.
And California's $3 billion investment in stem cell research, known as Proposition 71, is helping research institutes attract the best and brightest talent from around the world and fuel potentially lifesaving research, he said.
Schwarzenegger said he wanted to use his appearance at Invitrogen for a round-table discussion with the region's business leaders. Specifically, he wanted to know what state government could do to further support the health and growth of an industry that provides high-skilled and high-wage jobs and is expected to continue growing for many years.
In the San Diego area, the biotech industry returned $8.5 billion to the economy, state Labor Secretary Victoria Bradshaw said.

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