Stand-Ins for Gore, Bush Court the Biotech Crowd

Tom Abate / SF Chronicle 26oct00

Bush backer Barbara Olson debated Gore supporter Jeff Modisett over their candidates' merits before a crowd of biotech executives. Chronicle photo by Lea Suzuki

Gore supporter Jeff Modisett debated Bush backer Barbara Olson at the Ritz Carlton in San Francisco. Chronicle photo by Lea Suzuki

Leaving no niche unexploited, representatives of the Bush and Gore campaigns told biotech entrepreneurs in San Francisco yesterday why their candidate would be best for the industry.

The party representatives were peppered with questions about the prospects of government regulation, increased taxes and drug price controls.

Organized by the National Conference on Biotechnology Ventures, the debate put Republican Barbara Olson and Democrat Jeff Modisett in front of 50 venture capitalists, money managers and company executives.

Biotechnology is becoming a huge business.

``This is an industry that has 170,000 scientists, 1,400 companies, and a market capitalization above a third of a trillion dollars, and $22 billion in revenues,'' said venture capitalist Alan Walton, who moderated the hourlong event at the Ritz Carlton.

Modisett, co-president of the Silicon Valley lobby group TechNet, encountered a chilly reception in a group that has felt targeted by what Modisett called the ``populist'' tone of the Gore campaign.

``A lot of the people in this audience are that 1 percent he wants to go after,'' said Costa Mesa venture capitalist Edmund ``Ned'' Olivier.

Modisett tried to counter the anti-business charges against Gore by observing that under Clinton and Gore, the U.S. economy has produced 22 million jobs, a historic economic expansion and a balanced budget.

``This didn't happen by accident, it happened by courageous choice,'' said Modisett, arguing that the Clinton administration's 1993 tax hike -- for which Gore cast the tie-breaking vote in the Senate -- restored fiscal confidence and set the stage for the bull market.

Olson, a Washington attorney, hammered on the theme that Gore would impose more rules and taxes on biotech, and might even undermine the sector's current boom by pushing for universal health care and government cost controls.

``The very scent of price controls scares investors,'' Olson said, leading Modisett to retort that Gore ``has never talked about'' universal health care or price controls.

The two speakers agreed on some issues, such as doubling the budget for the National Institutes of Health, which supports the academic research that often spawns new commercial ventures.

But a question from Boston venture capitalist Jonathan Fleming exposed another industry concern with Gore. Some political leaders have argued that the government should demand ``reasonable pricing'' on drugs that evolve from government research, and have opposed the practice of granting one commercial firm exclusive license to government-backed research.

Asked what Gore would do about such pressures, Modisett said the tech-savvy vice president would resist such demands because he understood it would lead to ``the perverse consequence of drying up investment capital'' and prevent government- sponsored research from being turned into life-saving drugs.

The audience seemed generally pleased that both campaigns thought the biotech venture crowd worthy of being courted.

But biotech mutual fund manager Lissa Morgenthaler of Half Moon Bay chided the debaters for being long on partisan rhetoric and short on policy specifics.

``This is a pretty sophisticated group,'' she said. ``We don't need a lot of spin.''