Part I: Recounts the story of a Buffalo neurologist, Dr. Lawrence Jacobs, who doggedly pursued an unorthodox treatment for multiple sclerosis, without the backing of the larger scientific community. That work, supported by Buffalo philanthropists, led to the development of Avonex, an MS drug that few people in Buffalo realize earns Biogen Idec, a Cambridge, Mass., drug company $3 billion per year in revenue. But Buffalo has received little benefit from Avonex. Part II: Explores whether, if the next Dr. Jacobs toiling away in a lab on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus comes up with a similar medical breakthrough, would the jobs and revenues created by the drug stay in Buffalo this time? The public and private sector partners who have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in biomedical research facilities in Buffalo certainly hope so. But it’s unclear whether enough has changed, because biotech hubs such as Research Triangle, N.C., have such a head start on Buffalo.
