Gov. Rick Scott announced on Oct. 20 that biotech company IRX Therapeutics, Inc., would be moving from New York to St. Petersburg. He made the announcement in the USFSP Nelson Poynter Memorial Library.
The relocation will bring 40 jobs to the area immediately, and 280 jobs in the next five years, with an average salary of $90,000, Scott said.
USF gave the company $50,000. The state gave IRX $600,000 from its Innovation Incentive Fund. The company was given $275,000 from Pinellas County and a $275,000 credit toward land owned by the City of St. Petersburg in the Dome Industrial Park.
St. Petersburg Mayor Bill Foster said the city is already home to several companies or research entities in fields like medical research and marine science—“collaborations that are going to spin off and multiply,” he said. “To have IRX here is an incredible thing, an incredible service to the community.”
IRX focuses on developing therapies to treat cancer and other diseases.
Foster stressed the importance of economic development.
“We have an opportunity to keep kids we’ve educated right here in the state of Florida,” he said.
The Sept. 2011 Florida unemployment rate was 10.6 percent. It has decreased in the last 10 months, since being at 11.9 percent in January. Scott said the state’s focus in higher education should be on STEM—science, technology, engineering and mathematics—because 15 of the 20 fastest growing job opportunities are in these areas.
Scott said the week before that students should focus more on degrees in STEM and less in fields like anthropology, where they are less likely to find post-graduate jobs, he said. Many USF-system anthropology professors and students have shot back at this claim in the last week and a half.
Several students attended the press conference to hear Scott’s announcement. Student Government Senator Cory Hebert said the announcement was “wonderful news,” because of the relocation and the possibilities for IRX to partner with USF for research.
“This is a great opportunity for the medical and biological programs of USF. I am proud to have a governor who will personally travel to New York, and Brazil as he mentioned his next trip, to convince companies to move to and do business in our state,” Hebert said. “This announcement is great news for our university, community and the state of Florida.”
Scott said that he has been making phone calls to companies like IRX to try to get more to come to Florida. “My job is to get the state back to work,” he said.
About 10 protestors gathered outside of the library during the press conference with signs reading “Pink Slip Rick.” Amy Ritter of Orlando was protesting because of what she called Scott’s “back tracking” on his campaign promise to create 700,000 jobs in seven years, on top of normal economic growth, projecting to be about a million by 2017. Scott has since said his goal is to create 700,000 jobs, without factoring the normal growth.
Bryan Eastman of Orlando said he was protesting because Scott was making the announcement at a university after making cuts to Bright Futures scholarships and vetoing funding to USF, including $10 million from the School of Pharmacy at USF Polytechnic and $3 million for system-wide infrastructure repairs.
Photos by Daniel Mutter
