Feb. 17, 2016 – In the face of global problems, such as Ebola outbreak, catastrophic pollution, or world hunger, you may have thought to yourself: “someone should do something about that.” According to Tom Schoenfeld, formerly of Madison-based Lucigen Corp., the biotechnology industry is that “someone” who can do “something.”

And while it may seem like the sole province of highly credentialed scientists, the biotech industry, like any other industry, needs “someone” to draft contracts, enforce patents, and ultimately design laws that protect research and prevent abuse.

And the lawyer is that “someone.”

Recognizing that lawyers are central to the growth of the biotech industry, in Wisconsin and beyond, State Bar of Wisconsin PINNACLE^® is hosting the inaugural 2016 Biotech and the Law Global Conference, May 5-7, at the Monona Terrace in Madison.

At this event, lawyers will learn about legal and other issues facing the biotech industry – alongside the scientists, investors, and business people who are in biotech.

Through local excursions, they can immerse themselves in the “science” behind biotechnology. And they can explore opportunities to help biotech be the “someone” who is doing “something” about the world’s biggest and most complex problems. 

Business Opportunities: Midwest is the ‘Third Coast’ of Biotech

Attorneys should become more familiar with the growing opportunities that biotech brings to Wisconsin and much of the Midwest. These business prospects are available here and now, says Dr. Tom Tubon, a professor in the biotechnology department at Madison College and a speaker at the upcoming Biotech and the Law Conference.

“Wisconsin and the Midwest corridor, we’re considered the ‘third coast,’” says Tubon. “Biotech has traditionally been pretty heavy on the west and east coasts, but here in the Midwest, opportunities are continuing to grow.”

In fact, during the Great Recession, “where everyone was facing economic challenge, biotech kept on growing at a rate of about three-percent per year,” Tubon said. “In Wisconsin, what we’re looking at is continued growth, even in the face of recession.”

Nontraditional Startups

While biotech may be considered much like any industry when it comes to the need for business and patent lawyers, it does have some unique characteristics.

“Biotechnology is a little bit of a nontraditional industry in that many of the innovations start at a true startup level,” says attorney David Casimir of Casimir Jones S.C., an intellectual property law firm based in Middleton, Wis. “A university professor has an idea, they start a company that has one employee, or maybe two or three employees to begin with, and then if the technology ends up panning out, it grows and grows and grows and then typically either becomes a big company or gets acquired by a big company.”

Potential for Solving Our Greatest Problems

Business prospects aside, what’s truly exciting about biotech is its potential to impact the lives of everyday people. “These [are] really amazing emerging technologies,” says Tubon.

“We’re talking about additive manufacturing, cell-based printing, the world of stem cells and regenerative medicine itself, drug discovery and the FDA,” says Tubon. “All of these things have an impact on society and we have to as a society start thinking about how this impacts the way that we live.” Lawyers will play a critical role in that process.

“I think the most exciting part for me,” says Casimir, “is the problems that are solved by this industry are some of the greatest ones we have.”

Casimir says that major diseases like cancer, dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, depression – really complex things that day-to-day dramatically affect people’s lives – have been unsolvable for as long as humans have been around. “But we are at the cusp of solving all of these, and it’s coming from the biotechnology industry,” he said.