BIOTECHNOLOGY TIME LINE

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1987The National Institutes of Health celebrates its bicentennial.

1988Maryland exempts the biotechnology industry from temporary waste handling regulations.

Maryland's former Department of Economic and Employment Development sets a plan to make the state an international center for biotech.

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office sets a policy that moves small biotech firms to the front of the long line of patent applicants.

1989A small-business incubator facility on Johns Hopkins University's Bayview Research campus becomes home to 25 biotech research firms.

1990The White House approves the world's most lenient biotech policy proposal, allowing U.S. drug and biotech firms to perform most genetic experiments without government interface or oversight.

The $200 million Christopher Columbus Center of Marine Research and Exploration breaks ground in Baltimore.

A congressional investigation uncovers sales by U.S. biotech corporations of genetically engineered viruses and bacteria to Iraq's Saad 16 military research laboratory.

Dr. Craig Venter establishes the Human Genome Project in Baltimore.

1992President George Bush promises to devote more than $4 million to biotech.

Nova Pharmaceutical Corp. in Baltimore merges with Scios of California.

The U.S. Office of Management and Budget recognizes the union of Washington/Baltimore as the nation's fourth largest consolidated market.

1994Construction begins on the University of Maryland Biotechnology Center in Baltimore.

Virginia starts building a biotechnology research complex in Richmond.

1995President Bill Clinton and Congress fail to agree on a major health-care reform plan.

GATT results in a new U.S. patent role for biotechnology.

1996Dr. Robert Gallo establishes the Institute of Human Virology in Maryland.