When supporters of North Carolina's biotechnology industry look over their shoulders, here is what they see: Florida, Georgia and Washington.

Florida is the future home of the Scripps Research Center, which is projected to cost more than $100 million and create more than 500 jobs near Palm Beach. Washington has Paul Allen, who invested more than $200 million of his Microsoft fortune to turn Seattle into a biotech hub. And Georgia is benefiting from about $500 million it has spent in the past decade to recruit top-notch scientists.

North Carolina is already one of the largest and most vibrant biotech hotbeds in the United States, but several efforts are under way to turn up the heat.

One is a proposal to establish a fund of at least $100 million to help biotech startups get on their feet and give them a chance to expand, create jobs and wealth, and bolster the local economy. The fund would help companies across the South, but North Carolina would probably benefit more than others because research is already under way here, and the infrastructure is in place.

North Carolina's biotech industry is centered in the Triangle, fueled by two major medical centers, three research universities and several health-research institutes, research labs and manufacturing plants of large pharmaceutical companies. State-funded job training programs and several venture capital firms also contribute to the industry.

"That has given us tremendous advantage," said Leslie Alexandre, chief executive of the N.C. Biotechnology Center in Research Triangle Park. "But that doesn't mean there's no competition."

Indeed, North Carolina is trying hard not to lose ground.

For the third year in a row, North Carolina ranked third among the top 10 U.S. biotech states by number of companies, according to accounting firm Ernst & Young. But the number of biotech companies in North Carolina decreased, as it did in some other states. Fourth-ranked Maryland remained within pouncing distance, and second-ranked Massachusetts pulled away, gaining on front-runner California.

"We'll never catch Massachusetts and California; they have too much of a head start," said Michael Constantino, who heads the Southeast area life science practice at Ernst & Young's Raleigh office. "But we have the opportunity to put some distance between us and Maryland."

The data don't tell the full story. Ernst & Young doesn't include agricultural or industrial biotech companies or companies conducting contract drug research in its count. North Carolina is home to more than 200 of those companies, including industry leaders Quintiles Transnational in Durham and PPD in Wilmington.

But the numbers hint at what's ailing North Carolina's biotech industry: A lack of venture capital, especially very early on when the risks to fail are greatest.

"That's where the market is breaking down," said Scott Doron, director of the Southern Technology Council, a division of the Southern Growth Policies Board, a think tank based in Research Triangle Park. Doron established a task force that is considering raising $100 million or more to back up venture capital firms investing in biotech startups in the South.

Talks to establish the fund have just begun, and few details have been mapped out. But the plan is to attract money from state and corporate pension funds, foundations, universities and wealthy individuals -- the same investors that venture capital firms tap.

Drug research companies are usually based on discoveries made by university scientists whose work is funded through government grants such as those awarded by the National Institutes of Health. The scientists start the company, and the university spins it out. Then the startup is often taken on by a former pharmaceutical executive whose big-company resume can attract venture capital.

In San Francisco's Bay Area, Genentech, the largest biotech company in the country, generates executives who are able to advance biotech startups. Boston has the same in Genzyme, another biotech giant. Lacking a homegrown success like those two companies, North Carolina relies on local research and manufacturing operations of out-of-state drug makers such as GlaxoSmithKline and Biogen Idec to replenish the pool of experienced executives.

In the past two years, state recruiters also have zeroed in on attracting drug manufacturing plants with the help of incentives and job training programs. The economic development efforts aim at replacing the more than 100,000 manufacturing jobs North Carolina has lost in the textile, tobacco and furniture industries.

Last week, Gov. Mike Easley gave them a hand.

In only his second economic development mission overseas, Easley met with Irish recruiters to learn how Ireland has been successful in establishing a world-class biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry. The country's tax incentives, low corporate tax rate and training programs have attracted 170 companies that employ about 35,000.

He also toured the Dublin facilities of drug makers GlaxoSmithKline, Wyeth and Bristol-Myers Squibb. GSK and Wyeth have operations in the Triangle. North Carolina is on Bristol-Myers Squibb's short list to build a $660 million drug manufacturing plant.

North Carolina is on the short lists of many drug makers considering expansions. In January, Japanese drug maker Eisai said it would expand in Durham County.

But the state hasn't done as well attracting venture capital.

There's plenty of money available, but North Carolina isn't getting its fair share, said Clay Thorpe, general partner of Hatteras BioCapital, a Durham venture capital firm.

The state receives about $1 in venture capital for every $5 in funding from the National Institutes of Health. Based on NIH funding, Massachusetts' venture capital share is about twice as large as North Carolina's. California's is about four times as large. "We're two to three, maybe four, times underfunded," Thorpe said.

Still, there is movement in the right direction.

Billionaire David Murdock committed to pumping $150 million into a 350-acre health-research campus in Kannapolis. Groundbreaking for the project was in February.

Investors are again willing to take risks with unprofitable startups.

Nationwide, venture funds are looking to put about $40 billion to work, according to the National Venture Capital Association. And firms continue to raise cash, including in the Triangle. Intersouth Parnters and Aurora Funds, both of Durham, are pulling together new funds.

Venture capitalists from all over the country flocked to Pinehurst Resort on Monday to check out North Carolina's 11 hottest young biotech companies at a two-day venture conference. All but one of the companies were based in the Triangle.

And the next generation of startups is spinning out of the Triangle's universities. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill created five companies in the past 18 months.

Despite the attention up-and-coming states are getting, it takes a long time to build a biotech hub, said venture capitalist Will Brooke, chairman of Southeast Bio, a nonprofit organization that fosters the growth of the region's life sciences industry. "You've got to be patient." Brooke said.

North Carolina is on the right track, said Thorpe of Hatteras BioCapital. The state just needs some luck, good timing and patient investors. "We have to keep trying," he said. "We have to keep swinging at the ball."