BIOMEDS LOOKING HEALTHY $3.7 BILLION GENERATED IN SALES.

Byline: Evan Pondel Staff Writer

Amgen Inc., Medtronic MiniMed and Baxter International Inc. are driving Southern California's biomedical industry that generates $3.7 billion in worldwide sales annually, according to a report to be released today by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the California Institute of Health.

And while many of these biomed groups are considered young when compared with the average age of a Fortune 500 company, the industry is proving its boundless longevity.

``The industry is so dynamic and vast, that it's hard for us to even begin to appreciate its fruits,'' said David Gollaher, an author of the report and the California Healthcare Institute's president and chief executive officer. ``Even now, when venture capital is so constrained, lots of these companies are still getting funded and succeeding.''

Among those companies is Thousand Oaks-based Amgen, which is investing $950 million on biomedical research this year. The company has had three drugs approved in six months, laying the groundwork for a lucrative future.

``I think that if you look at Amgen's history, we're a good example of the emergence of the industry and potential for future growth,'' said Rebecca Hamm, spokeswoman for the company.

Bolstering the biotech bubble in Southern California is a geographic landscape in which academia intermingles with many industry leaders.

MiniMed plans to expand its 19-acre facility at California State University, Northridge, to 28 acres. The company, which was acquired by Minneapolis-based Medtronic last spring, opened its 500,000-square-foot corporate headquarters at CSUN last year.

According to the report, 58 percent of the 378 companies surveyed plan to broaden research agreements with their academic partners over the next two years. Around 18 percent of the companies surveyed also have patent license agreements with their academic partners.

``Many of these companies in the region are benefiting from the number of world-class institutions that provide a seed bed for labor and intellectual capital,'' Gollaher said. ``There is a tremendous talent pool here in Southern California, fostering a convergence between academia and these biotech companies.''

The report's findings, which will be discussed today by industry leaders at the City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, also focus on the influence of the biomedical industry on Southern California's job market.

In 2000, more than 125,000 people held biomedical jobs, paying a total of $6.4 billion in wages and salaries. The average salary of a biomedical employee in 2000 was around $50,800, the report said.

``It's obviously a very important sector in terms of employment for the region,'' said Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. ``One problem in the past is that we graduate a lot of people in biomed, but they ... leave the area for jobs.''

Now, with the proliferation of biotech companies in the region, Tracy Lefteroff, an author of the study and global managing partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers in San Jose, said retaining those graduates shouldn't be difficult.

``As the biomed arena grows, it's going to capture those graduates,'' he said. ``Combined with an aging population, you're going to see significant growth.''

Some of that growth is stemming from Baxter International Inc. The Deerfield, Ill.-based company plans to move its bioscience unit to Thousand Oaks. One of the company's manufacturing plants in Thousand Oaks also received Food and Drug Administration approval to produce Factor VIII, Baxter's flagship hemophilia product.

``A lot of these biotech companies are receiving approval in little time, generating extensive revenues almost overnight,'' Lefteroff said, ``The approval rates, along with an aging population, will definitely drive demand for these companies.''