Life science current events will collide with political realities in Minnesota. Last year the medical industry made important strides, including winning an angel investment tax credit. This year healthcare interests will likely be on the defensive. The University of Minnesota, the Biomedical Discovery District and health services for the poor are on the chopping block.

The only good thing I can say about Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty these days is that his reign of nothingness will mercifully conclude at the end of the year. (He’s on to the White House where he can be everyone else’s problem!) Until then, T-Paw seems determine to inflict as much damage on Minnesota as he can.

A few months ago, LifeScience Alley and the BioBusiness Alliance of Minnesota sponsored the first ever BIO forum, a chance for the gazillion people seeking to succeed Gov. Tim Pawlenty to woo the bioscience crowd.The results were dismal. The only candidate from that group with a strong chance of winning the election, the Republican Party-endorsed [...]

Can’t we just all get along?Tim Mahoney and Tim Mulcahy share a lot more than their first names and initials. The two men have been allies on everything from angel investment tax credits, the creation of the Minnesota Science & Technology Authority and the need for Minnesota to more fully convert its formidable research assets [...]

If Gov. Tim Pawlenty is to run for president, and by all indications he will, then he might want to think about the University of Minnesota’s Stem Cell Institute.To win the GOP nomination, Pawlenty, largely considered a moderate Republican, needs to win over conservative Christians who form the base of the party. And probably no [...]

Several House members introduced a bill that would require a label to be placed on vaccines that were manufactured using human fetal or embryonic cell lines. Any vaccine labeled as “derived from or manufactured using electively aborted human fetal or embryonic tissue” would require written consent from a patient before being administered. The bill, H.F. [...]

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty Thursday signed a bill that will offer more than $50 million in tax credits over five years to investors in early-stage, high tech start-ups.The House and Senate Tuesday overwhelmingly passed the jobs bill, which included the angel credits, ending an epic, seven-year struggle to make Minnesota more competitive with neighboring states [...]

The Minnesota House and Senate Monday overwhelmingly approved a five-year, $50 million tax credit designed to spur early-stage investment in high tech start-ups, including biotechnology and medical devices.Minutes after the House passed a jobs bill, which included the angel credits, 112-20, the Senate followed suit, 58-3. The lopsided vote capped an epic, seven-year struggle to [...]

en. Linda Berglin, the chair of her chamber’s Health and Human Services Budget Division and the key legislative leader in the debate over GAMC, tells PIM the plan advanced on Monday by Rep. Matt Dean, R-Dellwood, is ’less objectionable’ than the auto-enrollment of former GAMC recipients in MinnesotaCare that the Pawlenty administration began to implement this week.

The GAMC program provides health insurance to roughly 35,000 poor single adults at any given time, many of whom suffer from mental illness and chemical addiction.