In Memoriam: Senator Jim King

 

Amongst Senator King's many accomplishments as a legislator was the expansion of support for Florida's fledging biomedical research enterprise. Before there was the political and financial support to attract the Scripps, Torrey Pines, and Burnhams of the world, there was the Florida Biomedical Research Program and FL CURED.

As a freshman senator in 1999, King introduced Senate Bill 2558 that led to the creation of the Florida Biomedical Research Program. A few years later, in part as a result of his continued interest in the growth of the program, the Senate renamed the program the James and Esther King Biomedical Research Program in honor of his parents, who both died of cancer. When Jim King became Senate President in 2004, he authorized an Interim Report on State Funded Medical Research. This report concluded that "there was no central entity in Florida that coordinated medical research," and "if the legislature desired to coordinate research efforts, eliminate duplication and share research results among interested parties, a process or entity should be established to do so." FL CURED was born during the 2004 regular session.

Because of his efforts, these two programs received financial support through the Lawton Chiles Endowment Fund, resulting from the 1997 Florida tobacco settlement agreement, and became Florida's cornerstone for biomedical research. Senator King's leadership early on arguably led to a snowball effect for increased state support of biomedical research and biotechnology, culminating with the 2009 passage of the tobacco surcharge, which resulted in up to $50 million dollars in support to be equally shared between the King program and the Bankhead-Coley Cancer Grant Program created in 2006.

FL CURED is in large part about ideals: striving to make Florida a leader in biomedical research, expediting cures, working towards improved coordination of efforts, better communication among researchers and institutions, encouraging collaboration, improving translation of findings into clinical practice, and aligning resources—all to reduce human suffering from the deadly and disabling diseases that affect Floridians. Such high callings take leadership, and leadership begins with vision--attributes clearly evident in Senator King's legacy.