Gov. Wolf sells Pa. to biotech conference crowd

Gov. Wolf was all about cheerleading for the commonwealth Tuesday at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

Wolf appealed to a lunch audience of biotech executives from around the globe to enjoy their stay in Philadelphia at the BIO International 2015 convention, then come back to live and set up businesses in the state.

"It is really wonderful to follow Tom Brokaw," Wolf joked to the lunch crowd in the convention center's enormous Terrace Ballroom, after the legendary NBC News anchor spoke. "I notice all the people walking out the door, but give me three minutes."

Local or not, the ones who stayed heard Wolf rattle off numbers showing Pennsylvania remains a powerhouse in life sciences companies - despite cutbacks in the pharmaceutical industry - and express his admiration for what they represent.

Wolf told the crowd his next budget proposal has a plan to lower the corporate net income tax and close the so-called Delaware loophole that would make life fairer for state-registered businesses. He said he wants to entice new business with tax credits for creating manufacturing jobs.

"We love the jobs you bring here," Wolf said. "We love the compensation this industry brings to Pennsylvania. We love the way you interact intellectually with our communities. We love the way you work with our universities. While it's great to have you here as part of this convention, we all wish you would come back and stay."

The convention, which started Monday and will end Thursday, attracted people from 47 states - as of Tuesday - and 65 countries, as far away as Japan, Taiwan and South Africa. But the competition is close at hand for local politicians such as Wolf and Mayor Nutter, who helped Tuesday with promotion of the city and state.

New Jersey Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno was also at the convention center Tuesday afternoon and then recruited company officials during a dinner Tuesday evening. A Guadagno spokeswoman said that New Jersey has more than 3,100 life science and biopharma establishments, and the state is home to headquarters or operations of 14 of the 20 largest biopharmaceutical companies, including Novartis, Johnson & Johnson, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merck & Co., Novo Nordisk and Bayer. And though it generates anger among in-state critics, the Christie administration has bestowed millions in+ tax credits on companies willing to move to Camden.

The tricky thing for all governors is that they have other businesses with employer-sponsored health insurance, government health insurance plans and constituents, none of whom benefit from paying increasing costs for some medicine.

How do you balance that?

"That's a good question," Wolf said after speaking to convention attendees at the state's booth on the exhibition floor. "It wasn't too long ago that the sum total of economic development was the deal.

"Now, especially for biotech, we have to create the broader environment that is conducive to entrepreneurial activity, research, innovation. That includes investment in schools, a state that can pay its bills and have a fair tax system."

Nutter, who is finishing his term as mayor, told the attendees that his first job was at a neighborhood pharmacy and he wanted to be a doctor, until he hit a wall in chemistry at Penn.

"First and foremost you have to ask for business," Nutter said of what a mayor can do. "You have to indicate what your assets are, why people should be in your locale. Then you build the infrastructure and profile to demonstrate you have the capacity to get stuff done, to make them happy in an ecosystem where they can flourish."

Health care costs for municipal and school district employees, including high-priced medicine, are a burden for cities across America. One big regional employer, SEPTA, sued Gilead Sciences, alleging price gouging for the prices it was charging for a new hepatitis C drug. But Nutter realizes that challenge will have to be addressed at state and national levels.

"The price of drugs and those other things," Nutter said, "is way above my pay grade."