Molecular diagnostic test developers, BayBio hunt for lab talent

David Levison of CardioDx.

Even as cash-conscious drug developers carefully hire, there’s an employment bright spot in the larger life sciences industry: diagnostic test developers. Advances in the understanding of how genes interact and show the course of a disease or predict the recurrence of cancer have led to a boom in personalized medicine. Hundreds of jobs have been created in the Bay Area over the past five years. Someone needs to run molecular diagnostic tests through complex equipment and get results back to doctors and patients in days. The readouts help doctors shape treatment plans or make life-saving decisions on invasive surgeries. Molecular diagnostic test developers can’t find the right people to fill the jobs, which pay $60,000 to $75,000 a year. To hire clinical laboratory scientists, they must pit their startup cultures against that of hospitals, which can offer stronger benefits packages and job security.

One-on-One with Roman Reed, spinal cord injury patient advocate

Roman Reed.

The community of patient advocates is full of the most passionate, goal-oriented people you'll ever meet, and Roman Reed is near the top of the list. Reed, paralyzed in 1994 from a tackle during a Chabot College football game, has been one of the most visible advocates for stem cell research fundingthrough the San Francisco-basedCalifornia Institute for Regenerative Medicine, or CIRM. He also was a poster child for a state law passed a law in 2000 to fund spinal injury paralysis research through the state's general fund. But in the course of California's budget meltdown, desperate state officials took away the spinal cord research funds. Reed launched a new effort, resulting in Assembly Bill 1657, that would add just $1 from every moving traffic violation to fund spinal cord injury research in California. That bill, authored by Assemblyman Bob Wieckowski, D-Fremont, passed the Assembly on a 46-26 vote and the state Senate is expected to vote Monday on the measure.

Matt Gardner joins Bay Area Council as chief business officer

The Bay Area Council has hired former BayBio boss Matt Gardner as chief business officer, a role aimed at increasing the business group's membership. Gardner in fall 2009 resigned from BayBioafter six years at the helm of the Northern California life sciences trade group. Since then, he has been involved with a number of startup and technology-focused organizations.

California's nation-leading biotech industry gets no help from state

California has more biotech jobs than any other state, and its companies have  developed some 60 percent of the biologic drugs on the market today.

To celebrate, some of the leaders of the state’s biotech industry at the Biotechnology Industry Organization convention in Boston on Tuesday raised Champagne-filled flutes.

There were a few company representatives, some economic development officials and folks from BayBio in northern California and BIOCOM in southern California who were largely responsible for the modest California pavilion on the BIO convention exhibition floor.

But, as in years past, no state officials were seen.

Bay Area's BioGENEius winners hit Boston - Natalie Ng

If the Bay Area – or for that matter, the country -- wants to keep its lead in life sciences innovation, there’s hope in the forms of students like Natalie Ng and Nikhil Buduma.

They were the Bay Area’s entrants in the BioGENEius Challenge, a national biotechnology competition for high school students. Natalie and Nihil didn’t win national award – the top honor went to Nathan Kondamuri of Dyer, Ind. – but they did the region proud at the Biotechnology Industry Organization International Convention in Boston this week.

Bay Area's BioGENEius winners hit Boston - Nikhil Buduma

If the Bay Area – or for that matter, the country -- wants to keep its lead in life sciences innovation, there’s hope in the forms of students like Natalie Ng and Nikhil Buduma.

They were the Bay Area’s entrants in the BioGENEius Challenge, a national biotechnology competition for high school students. Natalie and Nikhil didn’t win national award – the top honor went to Nathan Kondamuri of Dyer, Ind. – but they did the region proud at the Biotechnology Industry Organization International Convention in Boston this week.

Biotech rivalry: Heritage favors Bay Area, but is Boston the future?

(San Francisco Business Times subscription required.)

If South San Francisco’s Oyster Point Boulevard is the gateway to biotech’s birthplace, One Kendall Square in Cambridge may be the highway to the industry’s future.

With increasing amounts of seed, startup and early-stage venture cash, a $10 billion state program and a mixture of biotech startups, mature Big Pharma companies and academic interests within walking distance of each other, the Boston area is surging.

Big shift ahead for biotech

Technology could completely redefine how the American public handles health care, and it could happen a lot sooner than you might expect.
The shift could start within a decade, panelists said at a discussion on “what will biotech look like in 10 years?” Friday at Calbio 2012.
See also: Biotech's battle: Rebuild industry for next wave of drugs

Video: Gov. Jerry Brown speaks at California biotech conference

Heavy on general policy but short on specifics, California Gov. Jerry Brown addressed the first statewide biotech industry conference Friday.
It was a marked departure from the administration of former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who largely ignored public acknowledgement of the state’s biotech sector.
In the San Francisco CalBio 2012 meeting -- sponsored by the Northern California biomed trade group BayBio and BIOCOM, its Southern California counterpart -- Brown said that during his previous stint as governor from 1975 to 1983 he vetoed legislation that would have restricted the work of Genentech Inc. and the young biotech industry.

Biotech's battle: Rebuild industry for next wave of drugs

Maybe it’s overdramatizing to say it feels like we’re passing through history, but as a number of Bay Area biopharma companies approach the cusp of drug approvals, it feels like we may not pass this way again.
It’s something to consider as the state’s biomedical industry players meet this week for the CalBio 2012 conference in San Francisco.
Maybe it’s my limited experience, but the sheer volume of drugs from Bay Area companies that are in front of the FDA in early 2012 seems unprecedented. After watching capital dry up for four years, just getting to this point seems a victory for some companies.
But for today's small life sciences companies to deliver big-time drugs in the coming years will take a new model for funding.

Slew of Bay Area drugs awaiting approval

(SF Business Times subscription required.)

A bounty of new drugs from the labs of Bay Area companies could win Food and Drug Administration approval in the next few months.
At least 10 drugs — from an obesity treatment to cancer drugs — are candidates for FDA approval by the end of June. Industry observers said they didn’t know how that number compares with any previous six-month period.
One thing is sure: After the economic downturn pushed many investors away from the capital-intensive drug-development business, the cadre of potential new drugs represents a victory of sorts. Many drug developers — especially smaller ones — have carried their drugs within sight of the finish line by sheer will or grit.

BayBio's Gail Maderis talks about new 2012 California biomed industry report

California’s biomedical industry employs nearly 270,000, generated revenue of more than $115 billion, captures $3.2 billion in National Institutes of Health grants and collects $2.7 billion in venture capital investment.
But, according to a report released today by Northern California trade group BayBio, the California Healthcare Institute and accounting-consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, something is woefully amiss. The report contends that the state’s spot as the world’s intersection of innovation in medicine, devices, technology, academia and venture capital, is “balanced on a precipice.”

Industrial biotech jobs soar, sector asks for policy help

California biofuels companies and others in the "industrial biotechnology" sector increased employment by 632 percent over the past five years, according to a survey conducted by the state’s two largest biotech industry associations.
The boom comes from a low starting base — among the 33 companies responding to the survey, 18 had no employees in 2006 — but it highlights the state’s opportunity to capture large-scale biofuel, green industrial chemical and biomaterial production facilities as the industry develops, backers said.

Lab worker shortage threatens hot molecular diagnostics industry

A tug-of-war for hiring specialized, hard-to-find lab workers could pull a potential growth industry out of California.
Molecular diagnostic test companies — part of the personalized medicine boom — are competing with hospitals and reference labs for master’s degree-level clinical laboratory scientists, or CLSs. That conflict is driving wages higher, company leaders say, as underfunded job-training programs can’t keep up with demand.
But leaders in the life sciences industry and academia will launch a program in September that could alleviate the supply-demand crush. Tapping federal economic stimulus program cash, the program will narrow the scope of CLS training for molecular diagnostics companies, helping them land the workers they need to quickly send test results back to doctors and patients.
At the same time, the new program could allow hospitals to hold onto more broadly trained lab workers.

Bay Area Science Festival campaign kicks off

A consortium of Bay Area business, research, academic and government leaders want to “unleash your inner scientist” with the week-long Bay Area Science Festival.
The inaugural event kicked off planning for the festival Tuesday with a news conference featuring Rep. Nancy Pelosi, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and University of California, San Francisco , Vice Chancellor Keith Yamamoto.
In all, 100 free events from Oct. 29 to Nov. 6 will try to get kids and adults excited about science and what it means for the Bay Area. Think biotech. Think high-tech. Think engineering.

BayBio COO leaves after 16 months, lands in D.C.

Jeremy Leffler has quietly returned to Washington, D.C., after just 16 months as chief operating officer and CEO-to-be at the life sciences trade group BayBio.
A self-described “political junkie,” Leffler is the new director of federal policy for drug developer Sanofi-Aventis. He had spent eight years in the nation’s capital, including four as manager of federal public policy with Eli Lilly and Co., before taking the BayBio post in February 2010.

Mr. Hastings goes to Washington, fights for drug approvals

OncoMed Pharmaceuticals ’ Paul Hastings threw down some interesting facts and ideas to a House Energy and Commerce health subcommittee hearing Thursday. Whether committee chair Fred Upton and his counterparts will pick them up is another thing.
The hearing comes as Congress looks at reauthorizing the Prescription Drug User Fee Act, or PDUFA, which is designed to allow the Food and Drug Administration to decide in a timely manner whether a drug is safe and effective. The program is funded by drug company fees.

Biotechs aim to extend popular grant, tax credit program

Biotechs are going hat in hand to Washington, again, hoping to extend a popular tax credit and grant program by as much as $5 billion over five years.
Whether the call for help is heard by a Congress focused on trimming the federal budget at all costs is another matter, but industry leaders say biotech and medical device companies are as much in peril as they were when the original program kicked in last year.

FDA liaison in Bay Area? Why not, BayBio says

BayBio wants the FDA to base an agency employee in the Bay Area as a liaison to the region’s life sciences community.
That may be easier said than done at a time when government budgets are under intensive scrutiny, but BayBio President Gail Maderis said biotech, diagnostics and device companies and the Food and Drug Administration need to work more closely at a time when the industry-FDA relationship has soured.
Maderis, who hopes to make a case to legislators during a Biotechnology Industry Organization-sponsored meetup with Capitol Hill legislators next week, said there is precedent for federal agencies getting out of the Beltway: The Patent and Trademark Office recently opened a branch in Chicago.

East Bay schools aim to refresh biotech labor pool

At many schools in the East Bay, businesses are stepping in where state and federal programs have failed — training children in science and technology to create a skilled workforce to one day staff biotech and cleantech companies clustering there.