INVESTMENT IN BIOSCIENCE COMPANIES

New Section 5 requires the authority to invest only in New Mexico businesses that maintain a minimum of five employees with a median annual salary of $60,000, or businesses relocating to New Mexico that agree to maintain these workforce standards for five years.

New Section 6 establishes employment restrictions prohibiting entities that received state investment from hiring board members or authority employees within one year of their service.

New investment contracts must include provisions for reimbursement obligations if a portfolio business fails to meet contractual obligations, including full reimbursement of the authority's cost basis or documentation of economic benefits exceeding that cost.

Investment contracts now require quarterly, semi-annual, or annual milestone tracking for disbursements, including key hires, technological readiness, partnership agreements, and intellectual property filings.

New Section 5 requires investments to be made through a competitive process with a co-investing organization where the authority's investment cannot exceed one-third of the combined investment, making the co-investor the lead investor.

New Section 7 requires quarterly public reporting of all investments to the board of directors and makes reports available under the Open Meetings Act.

The definition of 'bioscience' was expanded to explicitly include five specific industries recognized by the U.S. Department of Labor, including drugs, medical devices, research testing, bioscience distribution, and agriculture/chemicals related to bioscience.

The fund structure was modified to include fees, rents, and charges collected by the authority as depositable funds, and clarified that general fund balances do not revert at fiscal year end.