California Maintains Leadership in Life Sciences
Published Jul 08, 2008
BayBio, Northern California’s life-sciences association serving more than 800 companies, operates from this building in South San Francisco.
When California biochemist Herbert W. Boyer pioneered a new scientific field called recombinant DNA technology in 1976, one result was a revolutionary company called Genentech Inc. Another consequence was California’s biotech foothold. Today, California’s biotech footprint is mammoth: About 43 percent of U.S. biotech employees work in California, and one-third of the nation’s biotech companies are headquartered in the state.
Fatima Kassam, deputy director of the California Commission for Jobs and Economic Growth, points to life-sciences research at universities statewide, a well-educated workforce and a healthy investment climate as three reasons for California’s biotech dominance.
Another, she says, is “this California culture. Failure is a right of passage. Innovation doesn’t happen because someone has a genius idea all of a sudden. It comes out of trial and error.”
The proof is in the numbers – 408 marketed life-sciences products have originated here, and 492 more are in clinical phases. “It will take between $50 billion and $100 billion to bring those 492 into marketable products,” Kassam says.
Genentech embodies California’s biotech prowess. Headquartered in San Mateo County, Genentech saves and improves lives with such discoveries as Xolair to treat asthma and Avastin to treat several cancer types.
Genentech is expanding its decade-old manufacturing facility off Interstate 80 in Solano County. Michael Amman, president of the Solano Economic Development Corp., says the I-80 corridor has emerged as a life-sciences hub that is being fueled by billions in research dollars awarded to nearby universities.
Matthew Gardner, president and chief executive officer of South San Francisco-based BayBio, Northern California’s life-sciences association, says the area’s “commercial orientation” contributes to the many successful biotech ventures here.
Story by Sharon H. Fitzgerald
Photo by Jeff Adkins
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