Lisa Johnson is retiring after a 37-year career in Wisconsin’s biohealth industry, the last 11 as CEO of BioForward Wisconsin, which represents and advocates for more than 250 member organizations.
In addition to growing membership, she led the charge for Wisconsin’s designation as a Regional Technology Hub. In her final months, she’s urging members of Congress to reject the Trump administration’s $5 billion cut to the National Institutes of Health budget.
Johnson spoke with In Business Madison about her career, including stints with companies such as Novagen and Merck, and what’s next for the state’s $37.7 billion biohealth industry.
Upon someone’s retirement, it’s customary to ask about proud accomplishments. What are yours?
I certainly think about being part of Novagen, starting that company and building that with others. It wasn’t just me, it was joining up with other scientists to start that company, build that company, having that sold to Merck, working for them. Everything we accomplished with Novagen … knowing that our products also went into disease research.
The other one is BioForward. I’m really proud of where we’ve taken this organization during the last 11 years, and again that’s due to my team members with me as well as the board of directors.
You were instrumental in securing the Technology Hub designation. Why is this hub so important to the industry and the state’s economy?
When the Biden administration brought out the CHIPS and Science Act, it was about national and economic security. To us, this is the right path. We should be making those types of investments because China is investing hundreds of billions of dollars into biotechnology.
And certainly, the Tech Hub is more than biotechnology. It was AI, quantum computing — a whole bunch of technology areas — and what I’m really proud of is that we came together and we fought to go after this, but we had to have a powerful industry to do so, and we had already proven that.
We went up against 192 applications and 12 were selected for funding — 12 out of 192. So, to me, it was such a shift that Wisconsin won. We don’t win a lot of these. We finally won one and the U.S. government believed in us.
But the next part of it, besides national or economic security, is certainly the health aspect of it. We have the entities working in this space from the UW-Madison School of Medicine to the Medical College of Wisconsin and GE Healthcare, that are all driving technology projects through this Tech Hub that will advance health outcomes, to improve health outcomes.
You’ve been encouraged by the trend of outside life science firms buying local companies and expanding here rather than moving them away. Do you think Abbott’s commitment to Madison is strong following its acquisition of Exact Sciences?
We certainly hope so. I appreciate that Abbott is a Midwest company and just across the border (in Illinois). … Hopefully, they’re going to be committed to Wisconsin, and I do think a lot of these companies, from Abbott to Lilly, Pfizer and GE Healthcare, they’re committed to Wisconsin and they see the value. Just like BioForward always has to prove to our members that we bring value, the state of Wisconsin has to prove value to corporations.
One perception about the industry is that only Milwaukee and Madison benefit economically from our investment in life sciences. Is there some truth to that?
Well, certainly, we do have the concentration of this industry and that’s very much so in Madison. And again, this is historical because of our major research institution. You’re going to have that happen anywhere in the country where you have concentrations around your major research institutions. I don’t care if it’s San Francisco, Boston or San Diego, it’s going to happen.
And metro Milwaukee has some history with medical devices and with GE Healthcare, but the benefit is on the supply chain. … That supply chain is critical to this industry and companies are looking for that proximity to the supply chain. That absolutely lowers costs for them — to have this breadth of supply chain.
I think everyone in this state realizes that (the industry) certainly is not only located in southern Wisconsin, in Madison and Milwaukee. That it is going up along the Fox Valley, heavy concentrations and definitely around the Eau Claire area, especially for the medical device area, and then going down into the Kenosha-Racine area, we definitely have a concentration of some suppliers in that region. … And now you’re even seeing the growth of our industry as you start to see with the radioisotopes, we’ve got NorthStar and Shine heading south into Janesville.
MilliporeSigma has a very large operation in Sheboygan. So, there are pockets where the growth is happening outside of even the supply chain, and I think you’ll continue to see that in years to come.
You’ve expressed concerns about potential cuts to NIH for the fiscal year 2027 federal budget. About 80% of NIH’s $48 billion annual budget is invested in medical research through competitive grants. What would a funding decline mean?
I think we all need to be concerned because China is investing hundreds of billions into biotechnology. It’s one of the main pillars, and they are starting to surpass the U.S. They have the intellectual property, they are advancing much faster now than the United States, which used to be the leader. And (past) support was certainly bipartisan. There has been excellent Republican and Democratic support for the NIH, recognizing that we need to invest in biotechnology.
Unfortunately, the (Trump) administration has done some cuts and now it’s even proposing cutting NIH further. If someone were to look at the defense budget, that’s over $900 billion and now we’re only spending about $50 billion towards biomedical research that has advanced treatments throughout the decades.
I was looking at an article (Brennan Center, May 2026), and they highlighted the number of drugs that are coming out of the NIH.
NIH funding between 2010 and 2019 provided foundational funding for all but two of the 356 drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
It’s the place we shouldn’t be cutting. Now (federal lawmakers) need to stand up and fight for this and not have further cuts to the NIH or NSF (National Science Foundation) because this is a proven program that has been successful both on the economic and health fronts.
BioForward is looking for your successor. The search isn’t in your hands, but what qualities would you like to see in that person?
That person is certainly going to come to us with different experiences and capabilities, but I think that a couple points that we’re looking for in that person is that they have the knowledge of Wisconsin.
This person has to have the knowledge of this industry. … You have to make the connections and understand how the collaborations are working in this state.
And certainly, we are looking for a person that has passion. … You’re certainly going to need that to be able to fight. I always say that we have to continue to push hard in this state, and fight for this state, and that person’s certainly going to have to continue that.
