by Sean McManus
Staff Writer
Debbie Kloeppel Wotiz has been twisting politicians arms for a long time. As president of Kloeppel & Company Creative Marketing Solutions and Business Communications, and most recently as a consultant for Tidewater Consulting, Wotiz teaches companies how to communicate effectively with government.
Now she is focusing her attention more specifically in an effort to bring to Northeast Florida the industry that generates all the national press — and the cash that comes with it — biotechnology and pharmaceuticals.
Wotiz is establishing a biotechnology forum — and an eventual political action committee — that will lobby local and state leaders to promote a bio-friendly environment to attract the country’s largest drug and research companies.
“I already have commitments from two major pharmaceutical companies and two mid-stage biotechnology firms to join in at this stage,” said Wotiz. “We need a well-rounded group from the venture capital industry, major insurers and businesses interested in working with life sciences to complete the circle.”
The way Wotiz sees it, if Northeast Florida is going to get serious about attracting high-wage, technology-oriented jobs, then the area needs to rethink the way we approach the kinds of companies that supply those jobs.
“Florida is a huge market for pharmaceuticals,” she said. “It makes sense for those companies to have a major presence here, but the government has gone about dealing with those companies in the wrong way.”
Wotiz is referring to the way some politicians, especially at the state level, have demanded lower prices from pharmaceutical companies without dealing with the real problem. The pharmaceutical company Pharma even sued the State of Florida over its insistence that it lower the cost of its drugs, mostly as a means of controlling Medicaid costs.
“It costs a lot of money to make drugs,” said Wotiz. “Since Florida, and Jacksonville in particular, are less expensive places to do business than say, New Jersey, then drug companies — by relocating here — could conceivably produce drugs cheaper, without ignoring market conditions.”
Wotiz said the first step is to fund the universities that develop the innovations which fuel the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries in general. The University of Florida and the city of Gainesville have a vehicle, BioFlorida, a think tank and research organization that lobbies to make Florida an attractive place for life sciences companies. Wotiz would like to see more of those kinds of organizations, except with an even more intense focus on specific industries designed for North Florida.
“Universities can make money by patenting proprietary technology,” said Wotiz. “We’re not asking for the state to throw money at this industry without anything in return. If Gatorade has taught us anything, it’s that consumer innovations conceived at the university level can be very lucrative.”
A professor at Florida State University patented an antitumor drug called Taxol in 1989, and the university is still receiving sizable royalties from its sale to Bristol Myers Squibb.
The next message that Wotiz wants to deliver to government is how critical it is to gain a better understanding of how incentives apply to these specific industries.
“Companies like Pfizer and Merck don’t need tax breaks,” said Wotiz. They’re used to paying premiums for research, development, marketing and scientific innovation. What they want is a place that regulates privacy laws and protects intellectual property. It would require a pretty serious wake-up call on the part of local and state leaders.”
Citing that the biotechnology industry compliments Florida’s traditional agricultural and manufacturing base well (biotechnology by definition is the application of scientific procedures to living organisms so as to enhance goods or service), Wotiz thinks that the industries are prime candidates for an area with an aging population and declining motivation to rely on tourism.
“The Mayo Clinic, Shands, Blue Cross and Johnson & Johnson already have a positive impact on this community,” said Wotiz. “We want major pharmaceutical companies to know that this can be a good place to do business.”
The goal is to make North Florida more like Research Triangle, N.C. and the Georgia Research Alliance (near Atlanta) where government, universities, businesses and research sectors all contribute to the overall intellectual capital of an area. The other, equally attractive effect, is that because Florida is a less expensive place to do business, drug prices would decrease.
Wotiz mentioned Eli Lilly, Phizer, Merck, Abbott, and Bristol Myers Squibb as companies that should be doing business in Northeast Florida. She has already worked with Eli Lilly on some government affairs work through Tidewater Consulting.