Tobacco Money Could Give Boost To Research In The Life Sciences
David Nicklaus
Of the Post-Dispatch Staff

Missouri's Legislature, which couldn't agree this year on how to spend the state's $6.7 billion share of the national tobacco settlement, is likely to face even more demands for the money next year.

A few business and academic leaders, spurred by an innovative Michigan program, are beginning to put together proposals for a $1 billion life-sciences research and development fund. Proponents say such a fund would fulfill the spirit of the settlement by providing money for cancer research and other projects that would improve Missourians' quality of life. It also would boost the state's economy by helping turn academic researchers into entrepreneurs.

The idea of an R&D fund may have to compete with such perennial needs as roads and schools, and with a strong feeling that the money should be used for health care and anti-tobacco education.

This spring, the Legislature failed to pass a bill setting up a tobacco trust fund. The Missouri Senate wanted no strings attached to the money, while the House wanted to set aside some of it for health-care and a smoking-prevention program. Many states are spending the money on health care, but others are using theirs for other purposes. The settlement does not say how the states should spend their money.

In Michigan, meanwhile, Gov. John Engler and the Legislature were setting aside $1 billion for life-sciences research at three universities and a new research institute set up by the founder of Amway Corp. Michigan won $8.1 billion from the tobacco companies.

The Michigan R&D fund amounts to $50 million a year for 20 years. Ten percent of that would be used to finance startup companies that would commercialize technologies developed in the state's labs.

Richard Fleming, president of the St. Louis Regional Commerce & Growth Association, mentioned the Michigan program at a recent venture-capital conference sponsored by Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan. "In economic development, you steal good ideas, and that is one worth taking a look at," he said.

"I've had an informal conversation with Gov. Carnahan, and I would say he was intrigued with the idea," Fleming said Tuesday.

Independently of Fleming's interest in the Michigan plan, the University of Missouri is crafting a proposal to use $1 billion of the tobacco settlement for cancer research, treatment and prevention. Jack Burns, vice provost for research, said the university would spend the money across the state, especially at its medical schools in Columbia and Kansas City.

Burns said the proposal would definitely include money for commercialization of technology.

Fleming's idea and the university's proposal are on separate tracks at this point, but Fleming said he sees the potential for other St. Louis area institutions, such as Washington University and the Donald Danforth Plant Sciences Center, to work with the University of Missouri in managing a $1 billion R&D fund.

Missouri has a lot happening in the life sciences. The Danforth Center, with $146 million in funding, opens in 2001. In Kansas City, the Stowers Institute for Medical Research will open next year with a $336 million endowment from the founder of the American Century mutual funds.

Will the state use the tobacco settlement as an opportunity to enhance such efforts by the private sector? Joe Driskill, Missouri director of economic development, said state officials haven't started discussing the idea yet. He cautioned that, with $6.7 billion to be spent, "there are as many ideas around as there are programs and causes."

And, he said, "The governor very much wishes to have at least a portion of the money used to benefit people who have been harmed by tobacco products."

Carnahan also has expressed interest in the potential of life sciences, even speaking about the development of a "life-sciences corridor" along Interstate 70 across Missouri. Interestingly enough, Michigan Gov. Engler used the same phrase, envisioning a life-sciences corridor from Detroit to Grand Rapids when he signed the $1 billion R&D bill.

Robert Calcaterra says Missouri should view that $1 billion fund as a serious challenge. He recently moved to St. Louis to head the Nidus Center for Scientific Enterprise, an "incubator" to house companies that grow out of the Danforth Center's research.

Calcaterra said that Missouri is well ahead of Michigan - and most other states - in the life sciences now. But, he said, "It's scary to see other people throwing the amounts of money they're throwing around in this manner. They're upping the ante."

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