For the Southern California's life science community, two
years of preparation for the 2008 BIO International Convention came to a
head last week with what is no doubt the most successful convention
we've ever participated in. I know that we'll be riding high
on the wave of impact and emotion from this convention for the rest of
the year. This was our community's chance to shine on the
world's life science stage, and I'm happy to tell you that we
did.
This positive long-term impact on how this biotech community is
viewed both globally and here at home will be marked as one of the
turning points in our industry's history, as our friends and
neighbors have a better understanding of the importance of biotech and
medical devices to the past, present and future of this region's
economy.
But we need to stay focused on the future. Many other regions like
Massachusetts, Maryland and Florida have their own plans for
billion-dollar economic programs to attract life science companies to
their regions. We need to ensure that we continue to attract and retain
the best and brightest employees and companies to Southern California,
and we need to make sure that our state's own $3 billion research
initiative, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, is
allowed to continue without undue interference on its path to develop
stem cell-based cures for diseases.
In the near term financial side, the long development cycle
required to bring new products to the market gives us some insulation
from the difficult capital markets, but there are no ships safe from the
storms of the triple-threat of election year uncertainties, ongoing
financing issues at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the
ongoing impact of the mortgage meltdown, which can impact a
company's ability to raise financing. Elliot Parks, a respected
venture capitalist in Southern California, tells us his peers are
showing more interest in investing in some of the most exciting and
innovative members of our life science community, the early-stage
startups looking to commercialize new technologies from our research
institutions. These are the companies that will bring the breakthroughs
of tomorrow, so it's a great sign to hear about the interest in
investing in them today.
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An article submitted by BIOCOM, the association for the Southern
California life sciences community. Joe Panetta is the president and
chief executive officer of BIOCOM. For more information, please visit
www.biocom.org.
COPYRIGHT 2008 CBJ, L.P. Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
Copyright 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning. All rights
reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.
NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.