ORANGE COUNTY VOICES : Biomed Research Center Would Provide Jobs, Taxes : Proposed UCI facility would draw entrepreneurs who could help end recession.

The UC Irvine Biomed Research Center proposal is one that all of Orange County can support. The opportunity to create desperately needed new jobs and a stronger tax base is too important to ignore.

The biomedical industry is currently playing a major role in Orange County that is even larger than most people may realize. Officials at UC Irvine claim this industry has more companies (1,200) in Orange County than any other.

While some observers may believe the biomedical industry is an area of potential future growth, I would argue that the future is now. The biomedical industry is well-established in Orange County and is clearly in a position to help pull the county out of its recession.

The UCI biomedical complex proposal deserves the support of the county’s business and government communities.

From an altruistic viewpoint, the UCI proposal means three things: Jobs! Jobs! Jobs! Private business, academia and the community at large should jointly recognize the potential embodied in the proposal. The employment possibilities can play a major role in our collective futures.

If the politicians throw up any obstacles to this project, they should be reminded that we have a major unemployment problem in Orange County. More than 400,000 people become unemployed every week nationwide, a trend that has lasted almost two years, resulting in tens of millions of layoffs and thousands of permanent company closures.

I receive phone calls almost every day from laid-off medical industry executives who are “networking.” It is gut-wrenching to hear what they are going through with little hope in sight. I was also laid off about two years ago and can testify to the shattering upheaval that occurs.

After months of frustrating searching, I discovered there were literally no job openings in the county in the medical publishing industry. I decided to launch my own company, which is now a thriving medical publishing firm with new products, new ideas and new opportunities.

As a practicing entrepreneur, and an ex-victim of the recession, I believe the UCI proposal presents an absolutely unparalleled opportunity. It is no exaggeration to claim that such a project can help build a concrete foundation for Orange County employment growth for the next several decades.

As announced in Biomedical Market Newsletter, I support and encourage others to join together in constructing a major new high-tech/biomed convention center at UCI. Such a facility can be supported by user fees, private foundation grants and company donations. A specialized convention center complex would go a long way toward dramatically reducing the up-front marketing and promotion costs for entrepreneurial firms that will be spun off from vital medical research by UCI professors.

The possibilities are endless. We are limited only by our imaginations and resourcefulness, not budgets. I envision the day when the UCI facility will have “one-stop shopping” for young entrepreneurs wanting to launch new firms. At one location, one would have patent and incorporation attorneys available, venture capital and investment bankers, researchers, accountants, medical publishers, marketing/advertising/PR firms and most of the other key components that play an essential role in the start-up function.

As a board member of the Orange County Venture Forum and a medical publisher, I regularly talk with this new breed of entrepreneur. These dynamic pioneers are the ones who hitch their grand plans and dreams to projects like this. They create totally new and unique products and technologies. They create new jobs, tax revenues, new products, excitement, hope, enthusiasm and vital momentum. The synergistic possibilities are too immense to ignore.

Such projects clearly embody the greatest potential for an unprecedented period of expansion of employment and investment opportunities for Orange County’s economic survival and growth.

If we can all help overcome some of the major hurdles for these new companies, more firms will ultimately be created.

I urge everyone to recognize the potential inherent in the proposal. Let’s join to promote, encourage and become involved in the successful realization of this grand plan. Let’s help create a new renaissance of opportunities in Orange County.