Florida officials are crowing about luring a biomedical company away from Tucson.
But the company is largely unknown to people in Southern Arizona's biotech circles and at the University of Arizona.
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist issued a press release last week celebrating the recruitment of Biopsy Sciences LLC, which relocated to Pinellas County, Fla.
"Biopsy Sciences' move to Florida is indicative of the state's focus on a future rich in science, research and innovation," Crist said in the press release.
The St. Petersburg Times reported that the company has 10 employees and that it formerly used laboratory space at the University of Arizona.
Michael Cusanovich, director of Arizona Research Laboratories at the UA and president of the Bioindustry Organization of Southern Arizona (BioSA), said he had not heard of the company. Neither had representatives of the UA's chemistry department, the UA's Science and Technology Park, or Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities Inc., the local economic developent agency known as TREO.
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After calling around Tucson about the company Tuesday, TREO spokeswoman Laura Shaw concluded "they are largely unknown here."
However, Biopsy Sciences is listed on BioSA's Web site as a member of the organization, with an address of 3433 E. Fort Lowell Road. And the company was awarded two National Institutes of Health grants worth a total of $470,461 in 2006, and one $233,458 grant in 2005, according to the NIH's grants database.
The company was founded in Florida, the Times reported, and went back there in part to take advantage of the state's Quality Targeted Industry program. That program pays some relocation costs for companies in certain high-paying industries.
In return for each job created, Biopsy Sciences will receive a $5,000 tax refund, the Times reported. The company is limited to a total of $50,000 in refunds and cannot receive more than one-fourth of the refund per year. The company will get refunds only for jobs that are actually created.
Such a program does not exist in Arizona, said Shaw of TREO, and the company did not contact TREO about its planned departure from Tucson. However, new companies can take advantage of a state Commerce Department program that compensates them for hiring and training local workers.
The 10 jobs at Biopsy Sciences will pay an average of $72,694 yearly, which is twice the average annual Pinellas County wage of $36,347, or $17.47 an hour.
Reached by phone at the company's office in Florida, a man who identified himself as an owner declined to give any information about the firm.
"We're a private company," he said.
The company's Web site lists Dr. John Fisher as its founder and CEO, James C. Gibson as manager and Fred Ahari as chief technology officer. Ahari was formerly affiliated with Arizona Research Laboratories and was listed on a 2001 filing with the Arizona Corporation Commission as Biopsy Sciences' statutory agent in Tucson.
Ahari did not return an e-mail message seeking comment.
The company developed a product known as the HydroMark, which is described as "a novel ultrasound visible marker" that helps patients by replacing lengthy mammogram-guided procedures with a quicker and more accurate ultrasound-guided procedure that is more comfortable.
CEO Fisher said in the governor's office press release: "Through my work with the medical community here in Pinellas, I knew the area had the right combination of medical component manufacturers and health care industry professionals to support the HydroMark product. This relocation allows us to not only create high-value jobs in research and development applications, but will allocate clean room space to manufacture these products for the first time in-house."