BIO event stimulates biotech community for future endeavors.

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.