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Rep.
Paul Tessier: the driving force behind the Fairfield
biotech park
Maine Science and Technology Foundation
September 13, 2001
FAIRFIELD - When the facility is completed, the state's
new biotechnology park will bear the name of Thomas
M. Teague. But insiders know that it bears the mark
of one person above all others - State Representative
Paul Tessier of Fairfield.
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| Rep.
Paul Tessier of Fairfield |
Tessier,
a leading proponent of state investments in research
and development, worked the State House halls with single-minded
determination to secure funding in the last legislative
session for Maine's applied technology development center
(ATDC) system. Working with Fairfield Economic Development
Director Clyde Dyar, the veteran lawmaker developed
the concept of a biotech incubator as the first building
in the Fairfield park.
The
biotech incubator will be one of the state's seven applied
technology development centers. It will provide laboratory
space and office support to tenants until they are large
enough to move into their own facilities.
Tessier
said his membership on the legislature's Select Committee
on Research and Development first inspired him to look
at the "needs of a state that wants to enter the R&D
arena." A visit to a biotechnology incubator in Raleigh,
North Carolina, and a meeting with the head of North
Carolina's incubator system convinced Tessier that Maine
could also benefit from integrating its business incubators.
The
three-year process of transforming an idea into law
benefited from the involvement of the Department of
Economic and Community Development and the Maine Technology
Institute, said Tessier. All had ideas and "kind of
merged them," he said.
Although
the legislation will ultimately provide more than $5
million to Maine's seven development centers, Tessier
said it was designed to provide autonomy to each center
because "we didn't want to do a one-size fits all."
What
fits Fairfield, said Tessier, is a biotech incubator
that fits into the ATDC system.
"First
of all you build on your own strengths," he said, citing
the area's concentration of life sciences companies,
such as Maine Biological Laboratories and Northeast
Laboratory Services, as well as the Kennebec Valley
Technical College biological sciences program. Husson
College, Inland Hospital and the University of Maine
at Farmington will also collaborate with the Fairfield
incubator.
The
Jackson Laboratory has tentatively agreed to rent space
in the Fairfield ATDC and establish a facility to train
students- from high school through graduate levels -
in research techniques. Tessier said program graduates
will form a "a trained work force pool" for the Jackson
Lab and other local companies.
Tessier
said he and other economic developers, including Dyar,
who is serving as the Fairfield center's interim director,
also wanted to look at 21st century jobs that would
help lessen Maine's dependence on the textile, shoe
and pulp and paper industries.
Dyar
agreed that Fairfield is a good choice for biotech.
He cited his and Tessier's leadership in the International
Northeast Biotechnology Corridor, which currently involves
nine U.S. states and Canadian provinces from Connecticut
to Quebec, as an asset.
"It
gives us a bridge to build on," said Dyar.
The
northeast biotech corridor members hope to establish
university exchange programs for students, as well as
a regional approach to trade in biotech products.
Fairfield
expects the Thomas M. Teague Biotechnology Park to attract
150-300 jobs over time, said Tessier, adding that research
has shown that 84 percent of companies tend to stay
in the region where they were incubated. Incubation
usually takes three to five years, so the full effects
of the program may not be felt for almost a decade.
Maine's
incubators may also attract other companies to their
regions, and Tessier hopes to see clusters of companies
offering good-paying jobs with benefits form around
them.
"The
whole goal of an incubator is to create jobs," he said.
Dyar
emphasized that Fairfield intends to establish "a showpiece
for Maine." Although he said the center has experienced
significant construction delays - thanks to steel shortages
- it should be ready for occupancy in January. The building
will initially accommodate six companies; but it has
been designed, according to Tessier, with expansion
in mind.
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