Biotech, centered in Palm Beach County, grows statewide

Employment at biotechnology firms in Florida has risen 18 percent over
the last seven years, compared to just 7 percent of the state’s total
private-sector jobs, according to a report by Battelle, a
Cleveland-based research firm. The state has invested more than $1.5
billion on research labs, including Scripps Research Institute and Max
Planck Florida. The Palm Beach Gardens city council recently approved a
20-year plan for a one-square-mile lot for Scripps, and the Jupiter
Town Council also gave the nod to plans for a $50 million nursing home
and research lab in the city’s Abacoa neighborhood. The Max Planck
Society’s plans for a biomedical research institute in Jupiter approved in 2008 by the
Palm Beach County Commission. [Palm Beach Post]