Another ‘matching grant program’ by Montgomery County came to my attention last week. County Executive Marc Elrich’s newsletter promoted the “Montgomery County Small Business Research Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) matching grant program”.
Curious, I looked into the grant program, and note that it is designed to ‘support companies engaged in research and development in medicine, biotechnology, and life sciences.’
“This program has been well liked and pursued by startups in our pipeline,” said MCEDC [Montgomery County Economic Development Corporation] President and CEO Bill Tompkins [quoted in the newsletter by County Executive Marc Elrich]. “We’re excited to partner with the County to help promote the program and connect businesses with experts that can provide technology, funding, and commercialization opportunities.”
I graciously (and quickly) received a list of past grantees from the lead contact at the Montgomery County ‘Matching Grant Program Manager’ at the Montgomery County Business Center.
One of the grantees is a limited liability corporation called Trophogen, LLC (see screen shot below, highlighted). It appears to be HQ’d in Rockville, MD. Over the past three fiscal years it has received $212,500 in these taxpayer grants from Montgomery County. This is in addition to about $3.7 million in NIH / Federal grants over the same time span. Actually, going back even further, Trophogen lists about $8 million in NIH grants alone from 2004 – 2013.
I scoured the Google / Bing indexes for recent commercial or medical breakthrough news on this grantee but the most recent I saw was a headline from 2015.
“Trophogen, Inc. Announces Signing of Exclusive Global Veterinary License and Purchase Agreement With Zoetis, Inc. for Recombinant Long-Acting and Superactive Bovine Follicle-Stimulating Hormone (rbFSH) Analog for Superovulation in Cows”
Basically, a hormone that speeds up meat cow reproduction efforts in agriculture. Montgomery County government is granting the people’s money to a lab and research firm that is helping to produce more ovulation in lady cows. As a lover of steak, I guess I can support it, although I’d hope it could be done without my tax dollars being fronted. How does Montgomery County’s Department of Environmental Protection feel about it?
Side note: this is lifted verbatim from the EP department’s ‘Meatless Mondays’ webpage: “While there are no grants or rebates for doing Meatless Mondays (we wish!!), there are a lot of personal and environmental benefits.” They actually want “grants” to people for going meatless!
There is little else about the entity (Trophogen) or any research break-throughs in the past 6-plus years.
Per the website for the SBIR/STTR matching grant program, the following eligibility requirements exist:
Trophogen appears to have been established in July of 2001. Were they granted an exemption to this criteria? Why?
Overall, this is just but one example of granting run amok by local government. Hopefully, there are success stories out there as well and we wish Trophogen (and all enterprises in Montgomery County) much success in the market. But the grant program(s) of Montgomery County leave much to be desired. How often are they scrutinized? Audited? Researched for success? What does success even look like?
And do taxpayer dollars need to be thrown, continuously, at select businesses, even in the “life sciences” area? Why?
And why can’t taxpayers/homeowners in Montgomery County get a fat tax cut for once, instead of tax hikes to fund a County government that then turns around and insists on showering various businesses with excess cash?
