L.A. BAITS BIOTECH HOOK PARK PLANNED FOR LIFE-SCIENCE FIRMS.

Byline: Brent Hopkins Staff Writer

Seeking to lure the state's lucrative biomedical and biotech industries, Los Angeles city and county officials announced plans Tuesday to develop a vast tech park to take on the industry's great hubs.

While the Los Angeles area has spawned big-name companies like Amgen Inc., Advanced Bionics Corp. and MiniMed, the region lags behind tech leaders in the Bay Area and San Diego.

In creating a new redevelopment zone clustered around the University of Southern California's Health Sciences campus, Los Angeles leaders seek to tap into an industry that, according to the California Healthcare Institute, generated $32.3 billion in worldwide revenue last year.

``We could have the makings of a fertile biomed industry here,'' said Gerry Hertzberg, special-projects deputy for Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina. ``We've got a lot of companies here, but we don't have a hub. There needs to be people to hire, facilities to go into, patent attorneys and a defined area for venture capitalists.''

Proponents of the project believe the zone, anchored by a 100-acre park next to USC and surrounded by a 1,207-acre redevelopment area under joint city and county authority, will create 8,500 new jobs in the next 15 years. Construction will begin in March of 2006, with the first phase set to rap up 18 months later.

``Despite its great educational institutions, Los Angeles has been left behind over the past 25 years,'' said David Gollaher, president and chief executive officer of the La Jolla-based CHI, a political-policy advocacy group for the biomed industry. ``If you look out 10 or 20 years, and ask what are the industries where California has a sustainable competitive advantage, life science is on the top of the pyramid.''

With the state doling out billions to fund stem-cell research after the passage of Proposition 71 in November, Los Angeles is quickly getting in line to match its scientists to the dollars. Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa, who represents part of the area encompassing the park and is also running for mayor, noted that USC, the California Institute of Technology and the University of California, Los Angeles, would all be close by to provide research and employees for the new jobs.

``This biomed park will allow us to draw down our share of the $3 billion in stem-cell research dollars,'' Villaraigosa said. ``USC has invested $500 million in the health sciences campus, the county's building a billion dollar replacement hospital at the site, (California State University, Los Angeles) is just a few blocks away, and East Los Angeles College is only a couple miles farther.''

Those academic centers have been sending their grads to San Francisco, Orange County and San Diego, according to biomed entrepreneur Alfred Mann, who heads both Advanced Bionics and MannKind Corp. in Valencia. He's been involved in the creation of smaller sites in Northridge, Sylmar and Valencia but enthusiastically endorsed the proposed park as a way to compete with the in-state rivals.

``We're a distant fourth, and the reason is that we don't have any of these parks,'' Mann said. ``If you want to try to develop a biotech industry here, you've got to have these.''

Brent Hopkins, [phone]

brent.hopkins(at)dailynews.com