Oklahoma Biotech Research Uncovers a Familiar Name

Man, my life is fun sometimes. I decided to place the main character of my novel in a more commercial atmosphere versus a university, so now he works at Research Park in Oklahoma City, a facility I got to know a bit in its early stages (I met with faculty and had classes there three years after its first building opened). I quickly found an old classmate after just a few minutes of searching the Web for what's new at Research Park. She's the managing director at several start-up biotech companies founded by her mentor, who taught a few of my classes in grad school. I had to write her and congratulate her--that's pretty impressive. I won't put her in my novel, of course, but some of my characters will work in her building.

I also found out how some of these start-up biotechs get access to taxpayer dollars, in the form of NIH funding as well as tax credits from the state. That will be a key point of my story. According to Biotechnology: Law, Business and Regulation (2001 supplement, pp. 7-146 – 7-147) by Michael J. Malinowski (thank you, Google Books!), Oklahoma provides a 20% tax credit to capital investors in small business investment companies and a 20% tax credit for investments made in R&D ventures in conjunction with these companies. The Oklahoma City Investment Board invests in venture capital firms that take equity positions in biotech firms. The Urban Renewal Authority and Presbyterian Health Foundation offer incubator space at no or below-market cost to early stage companies at Research Park.

That's probably no big deal to the average reader, but for those of us concerned about market manipulation by the state, it's an issue. In Maryland, nearly a quarter of a million dollars in tax credits is offered by the state as incentive for investment in biotech companies. It's an investment by government officials, using taxpayer dollars, for which they expect a return, to be distributed as they see fit. Hopefully I can write about this clearly in my book, and anyone who reads it can form their own judgment.

I started giving more thought to the "dirty cop" of my story, too. He needs a way to justify what he does so that he's not a cardboard evil dude. I've had plenty of conversations about police on Facebook, so I'm pretty familiar with the justifications for their actions! But of course this cop will take things a step too far. Still many readers may find his actions totally acceptable, and that's fine. It should be up to the audience to decide which actions are right and which are wrong.