An industry with a family tree: Much of Maine’s biotech industry grew out of two firms

Like some of its products, cultivated from the cells, strands and science of living organisms, Maine’s biotechnology industry has grown organically.

It dates to the mid-1970s founding of Ventrex Laboratories Inc., a diagnostic testing company in Portland, and the now-defunct Foundation for Blood Research.

Those two organizations led to the creation of more than 20 biotech businesses, says Gary Goodrich, a board member of the Bioscience Association of Maine. Today, more than 200 bioscience-related companies and organizations call the state home.

“Maine’s industry is a little cluster,” Goodrich says. “It crosses a lot of different areas.” Read more

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