Repurposing is an efficient approach to drug development

Repurposing is an efficient approach to drug development, as it makes use of existing knowledge on pharmaceuticals and their mechanism(s) of action, thus minimizing the need for much of the preclinical and early safety work required by new chemical entity (NCE) drug discovery and development.

Many bioinformaticians believe that drug repurposing is one potential solution to Eroom’s Law: the observation that the efficiency of drug development halves about every decade.2 Thus, repurposing may offer a systematic approach to increasing the pace of therapeutic development. One of the benefits of drug repurposing is cost reduction; recent estimates suggest that marketing approval through repurposing can cost ∼70% less than that for NCE drug development projects. Drug repurposing is often much faster than NCE drug development: although the time from discovery to regulatory approval of an NCE may require 12 years or longer, repurposing can establish the same task in <6 years, nearly half the conventional time.3

Data driven and genomics guided drug re-purposing makes it possible to find totally new mechanisms of action that may not have been previously suspect

A research study conducted by the Connectivity Map project from Broad Institute of Harvard & MIT based on the advances in genomics set up a systems - based approach to drug repurposing and discovery.

Instead of identifying the targets hit by a particular compound, say through a target-based screen, we can now measure and evaluate the genome-wide perturbation induced by a compound. In the case of the Connectivity Map, this perturbation was determined by transcriptional changes that result from exposing a cell line to a dose of the compound and measuring the changes in the transcriptome relative to untreated controls. 

By measuring all genes at one time, we can obtain a system-wide snapshot of how exposure to a particular drug affects the entire cell line.

38% of Virginia's population has a Bachelor's degree.

The state has over 38% of it's adults with a bachelor degree or higher. Virginia has the nation’s fourth highest concentration of crucial science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) employees, making up 9% of the workforce in 2018. All of this in a right-to-work state with a minimal union presence — something companies prize.

Virginia has a significantly aging population with the median age of the state being 37.8 years

Average age of Amazon employees is 31 years. The median age of the state of Virginia is around 38 years. The rate of unemployment is 2%. This may seem like a deterrent in terms of job creation and also long term employment opportunities Amazon would offer to the people of Virginia.

Test statement

Test Statement Description.

Chemoinformatics is an established discipline focusing on extracting, processing and extrapolating meaningful data from chemical structures.

Machine learning is currently one of the most important and rapidly evolving topics in computer-aided drug discovery

The world contains billions of people, to take whole-genome sequencing as the basis for medicine, billions of genomes will have to be sequenced. This is industrial scale and requires huge investments.

Obtaining genomic snapshots are not easy as DNA is very static and RNA is chemically unstable and degrades rapidly.

A picture of the genomic patterns in the tissues from affected and unaffected individuals can help obtain a molecular signature of a disease.

There are other factors beyond incentives that weighed-in in favor of North Virginia

Atleast according to Amazon's senior management following factors helped Virginia to win the deal.

1. Best transit access - 3 Metro stations, commuter rail access, Reagan National Airport all within walking distance.
2. High Quality of Life -  The community has a variety of hotels, restaurants, high-rise apartment buildings, retail and commercial offices. It has abundant parks and open spaces, with sports and cultural events for residents of all ages throughout the year.
3. Amazon will be able to attract the top-tier talent given the factors like education levels and the thriving technology business community that is already present in the area.
4. Vicinity to DC, without the hassles of setting up there.
5. Dated Architecture and public places are being re-developed.

Arguably, Virginia offered Amazon the best workforce

The deal offered to Amazon also included significant public investments in transportation and education which amounted to roughly $800 million along with the financial incentives offered. 

Virginia offered to boost the local university curricula and to increase the tech workforce pipeline.

• New master's degree programs in CS and other tech fields to be launched at George Mason University
• New $1 billion innovation campus at Virginia Tech in Alexandria
• MoU between Alexandria and Virginia Tech to structure a financial plan to build the innovation campus, which could mean local public funding and an expedited regulatory process.
• Commonwealth to grant $375 million in performance based grants, across 2 decades, on condition that each university gets a 1 to 1 match from donors, for Mason & VT measures.
• Virginia to invest $50 million in the next 20 years in K-12 tech education and college internships at local tech companies
• Performance based payments in tech-related bachelor's degree programs with public universities or community colleges

They already had one of the most educated workforces.

Choosing Virginia over New York City was the right business decision for Amazon

Virginia is listed at the top of the best states for business in 2019. The state offers the best workforce in the nation, according to a CNBC survey. The number of professionals in STEM careers is one of the highest in the region.

As part of the deal, Amazon was offered the following by the state of Virginia - 

• Workforce cash grants totaling up to $550 million for the 25,000 new jobs, or $22,000 per new job that's created with a wage of at least $150,000. That's considered the first phase of hiring. Amazon is eligible for another $200 million in grants if it creates an additional 12,850 new jobs beyond the initial 25,000.
• $295 million of nongeneral fund money in infrastructure investments, including new entrances to the Crystal City Metro station and the to-be-built Potomac Yard Metro station, improvements to Route 1, a pedestrian bridge connecting Crystal City and Reagan National Airport and a transitway expansion that serves all of National Landing.

From Arlington County, it includes:

• An annual performance cash grant totaling $23 million across 15 years tied to Amazon's ability to meet office occupancy targets for 6 million square feet in that time. Those funds come from up to 15 percent of the county's Transient Occupancy Tax, which a tourist and traveler tax for rooms or other lodging they rent in local hotels, motels or homes. Five percent of the tax goes to directly to the county's general fund while .25 percent goes to the agency that promotes tourism.
• $28 million in tax-increment financing across a projected 10 years, based on 12 percent of future property tax revenue expected from Amazon. The county said it would use that funding toward improving streetscapes, community parks, on-site infrastructure and open space in National Landing.

Choosing Virginia is a strategic decision made based on qualitative analysis, not quantitative.

On the corporate level, Amazon has faced and will face far more potential challenges emanating from the federal city in recent and coming years.

D.C.-centric issues include : - 

• contending for a $10 billion contract with the Pentagon to move military data onto cloud services; pending federal approval on using drones to deliver packages;
• the Postal Service considering dramatically raising shipping rates in the face of declining usage;
• potential antitrust scrutiny from the Justice Department.

Accordingly, the company has surged its lobbying in recent years, spending $13 million on lobbying in 2017, according to Amazon’s public financial disclosures. That’s more than quadruple the $2.5 million they spent as recently as 2012, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Virginia is not on the top 10 list of states that rank better for business growth, number of patent creation and taxation

Based on factors like business growth, patent creation and taxation following are the Top 10 States for Business to set up their HQs.

• California
• Massachusetts
• Washington
• Colorado
• Utah
• Nevada
• Idaho
• Delaware
• Arizona
• Connecticut

This is based on the report published by USNews.

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/slideshows/10-best-us-states-for-business