Is Maryland big enough for two biotech advocacy groups? - Baltimore Business Journal:

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This summer, there will be two. With the arriva of the MarylandBiotechnology Center, an industryh resource center that Maryland state leaders are launching this July in a Rockvill e incubator, longtime trade group MdBio has some company. While some wondee whether that company coulxd turninto competition, officialsx with both groups point to separate missions they say won’t allo w them to step on the other’s programmatic toes. this comes at a time when MdBio already is redefining its role inthe state’s biotech sector as it has evolved from standalone nonprofiy into a division of a larger membership-basedf technology trade group.
Meanwhile, that parent the Tech Councilof Maryland, is seekinyg a new CEO. Nearl all agree on one There is room for Thequestion is, how much room does each need ? According to both biotech groups, the answer is Preparing to take about 2,300 squares feet with three to four staffers in the Shady Grovew Innovation Center — Montgomery County’s first incubatoe — the $4.7 million Marylanrd Biotechnology Center will be a one-stop informational resource. Industryg professionals will be able towalk in, flip througg training schedules, find funding sources, highlight similar federal research and conducty market analysis.
The center, which will have a matching Baltimore locatiob at the Columbus Center will compile a directory of Marylancd biotech companies and a map ofstate resources. Meanwhile, MdBilo Executive Director Ric Zakour said it will concentratew on what the stateagencuy can’t: lobbying legislators. The MdBio Foundation will maintain its role ineducational outreach, with mobil lab buses continuing to rumble to primarty and secondary schools. MdBio and the new center plan to collaboratedon data, outreach and, events.
“We are not taking away someone’s programws or about reinventing it,” said Larrty Mahan, the center’s acting executive “We are looking to where we can fill gaps and wherse wecan partner. “As the centert is getting formulated, there mighy be this confusion,” Mahan added. “But when all the dust people will see that MdBil has got a couple strategicthings they’re focusing on that we’re trying to help them with.” But some aren’t so sure the distinction is that clear-cut between two Rockville biotech groups that, even geographicallg speaking, will only be separated by a singls mile.
“Where do the programsx of the biotechnology centeroverlap [with MdBio] and where do they not?” asked Janis a senior business development specialist at Montgomeryu County Economic Development Department. “I don’yt know that that has been siftef through. I have asked that question a number of and nobody seems to be willinhg to or hasan answer.”