Joe Panetta Celebrates a Decade at BIOCOM’s Helm
Fine food connoisseur. Eagle Scout. Keyboard player. Champion of the environment. Former milk inspector.
It may come as a surprise to those who know Joe Panetta, but all of those monikers describe the omnipresent face of the region's biotechnology trade organization, who celebrates his 10-year anniversary this month as CEO of BIOCOM.
If there's a cocktail party, dinner or breakfast meeting or groundbreaking in any way associated with the region's biotech community, Joe is sure to be there in a crisply pressed suit, smiling and quietly talking to all the right people. He can also be found at board meetings of 12 business or educational organizations around Southern California, including the San Diego Regional Economic Development Council and Cal State San Marcos.
Under Joe’s stewardship, BIOCOM membership has doubled, revenue has risen from $700,000 to more than $3 million and the staff has grown from six to 22. BIOCOM’s reach now extends north to Thousand Oaks, and keeps growing.
Biocom's board of directors has grown from 30 members to 60 and includes the top executives of the region's biggest and most successful companies. It is to Joe’s credit that those executives are actually busily involved members and not just figureheads.
However, Joe is quick to redirect the credit and spotlight on to the people working at the companies that BIOCOM so proudly represents. "The people in this field are the most exciting group I've ever been around," he said. "They're highly motivated to make a difference, they're dedicated and they're also all multifaceted."
The beginning of his tenure at BIOCOM may not have been so auspicious.
In a newspaper interview a few years ago, Joe recalled walking into his first meeting of BIOCOM’s legislative committee and only three people were sitting at the table. His heart sank.
In his previous job at Mycogen, he’d been dealing with government officials in Tokyo, Mexico, Sydney and Washington D.C. And he oversaw the company’s operations in those countries and the Middle East, as well as its dealing with non-governmental organizations such as the United Nations.
"It felt like being demoted from (Major League Baseball's) National League to level A," Panetta said in that newspaper interview. But, in typical Panetta fashion, he chose to find the positive side: “I didn't have to get on airplanes and fly all over the place."
And that meant he could spend more time at home with his wife and then-young children.
Panetta smartly decided to put his national and international affairs experience to work building up the legislative committee. Now BIOCOM is known not only in San Diego, but in Sacramento and Washington, D.C
Not bad for a guy who spent two years before grad school as a control supervisor for a Syracuse dairy company – a job that Joe still describes as “interesting as heck.”
Though his parents wanted him to be a doctor, Panetta thought it just might be too mundane a career. So, after earning his undergrad degree in biology, he earned his master’s degree in Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh.
The former lifeguard and camp counselor had a passion for protecting the environment, so he knocked on doors at the EPA until he landed a job in the EPA’s division regulating pesticides and toxic substances.
It left the 25-year old butting heads with chemical giants Monsanto and Dow, before he was promoted to the agency’s office of policy and resource management. He and his six co-workers essentially implemented the administrative policies of the EPA and interacted with Congress.
"I loved the excitement of being involved in the cutting edge," Joe said in an interview with the Union-Tribune. "And it's one of the same things I love about being a part of this community."
Panetta attributes his drive and motivation to his Italian immigrant parents, who came to this country after World War II and settled in Syracuse. At that time, they spoke no English.
And it is through his upbringing that Joe realized that life is a marathon, and not a sprint. It’s an attitude that, for years, has been obvious in Joe’s professional life, said his friend and former boss Jerry Caulder.
In a newspaper interview Caulder once said of Joe: "When you put something in his hands and said this is what we need, he'd come back from Sacramento, or Washington, or wherever, successful," Caulder said.
"He has a lot of integrity. He's a hardworking guy. And he's smart,” Caulder said.
“What else do you need?"
Indeed.
Joe at a CALBIO Dinner with former AmylinPharmaceuticals CEO Ginger Graham and Life Technologies CEO Greg Lucier.
In 2004, Joe hosted BIOCOM's CEO reception at then-new Petco Park.
Joe and Billy Tauzin,CEO of PhRMA, at BIOCOM's 2009 Celebration of Life Dinner.
Spotlight on Ophthalmology
With this issue of the Biocommunique, BIOCOM continues to take a monthly look at drugs and devices in development. Following our 2009 "Art of Research" Calendar, each month, we look at a new disease and our member companies’ efforts in it, with the information eventually posted to the "About Southern California" section of our Web site.
For our July disease spotlight, well take a look at companies with products and devices in development to treat ophthalmic diseases and complications. Many ophthalmology researchers focus on glaucoma, a chronic eye disease and the second leading cause of blindness in the world. Loss of vision is caused by the degeneration of the optic nerve, which is responsible for carrying images from the eye to the brain. An estimated 4 million people in the U.S. have glaucoma, but only half of those are aware they have it. Other ophthalmic issues include macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, cataracts, and contact lens usage, all of which affect the success of a patient’s vision.
The following companies responded to our request for summaries of their ophthalmology efforts. Is your company not on the list? Please email Michelle Wright, Assistant Manager of Membership, and we'll update you on our site.
Next month's spotlight will be on companies working in immunization. Please contact Michelle Wright with any questions or to make sure your company is on the list.
Southern California life science companies working in ophthalmology include:
Acadia Pharmaceuticals, CytRx, Heidelberg Engineering, Isis Pharmaceuticals, ISTA Pharmaceuticals, Lpath, SynergEyes, TargeGen, Vitreoretinal Technologies
Acadia Pharmaceuticals: Utilizes innovative technology to fuel drug discovery and clinical development of novel treatments for central nervous system disorders. AC-262271 is a small molecule product candidate being developed for the treatment of glaucoma. Acadia has identified a subtype of the muscarinic receptor that controls intraocular pressure, a frequent symptom of glaucoma, and discovered compounds that selectively activate this target.
CytRx: is a biopharmaceutical research and development company engaged in developing high-value human therapeutic products based upon its small-molecule molecular “chaperone” regulation technology. The Company’s drug development pipeline also includes three clinical stage oncology drug candidates.
Heidelberg Engineering: Designs, manufactures, and distributes diagnostic instruments for eye care professionals. The company’s core technologies include confocal microscopy, scanning lasers and optics, optical coherence tomography and software image analysis. Their technology recognizes and tracks glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy and macular edema associated with cataract surgery.
Isis Pharmaceuticals: Antisense drug discovery and development is the cornerstone of Isis. Antisense drugs are the first class of drugs targeted to control expression of genes through interactions with RNA. The goal of Antisense drugs is to intervene at the RNA level to prevent the production of proteins involved in disease. iCo-007 is an antisense inhibitor of c-Raf kinase, which is associated with a reduction in the formation and leakage of new blood vessels in the eye. This suggests that iCo-007 can improve treatment for both diabetic macular edema and diabetic retinopathy.
ISTA Pharmaceuticals: is the fastest growing U.S. branded ophthalmic pharmaceutical company, having recently become the fifth largest in the U.S. market. The Company’s products and product candidates addressing the prescription ophthalmic industry include therapies for inflammation, ocular pain, glaucoma, allergy, and dry eye. T-Pred™ is a new eye drop being developed for the prescription treatment of steroid-responsive ocular inflammation where risk of bacterial infection exists. XIBROM QD™ is ISTA’s new proprietary once-daily formulation for the treatment of ocular pain and inflammation associated with cataract surgery. Potentially, patient compliance will improve by reducing the number of daily doses, while maintaining effectiveness.
Lpath: is the category leader in lipid-based therapeutics, an emerging field of medical science whereby bioactive signaling lipids are targeted for treating important human diseases. iSONEP™ treats age-related macular degeneration. The drug candidate exhibits anti-fibrotic and anti-inflammatory properties that are suggestive of efficacy against glaucoma when surgery is required.
SynergEyes: Established in 2001, SynergEyes recognized the need for a hybrid contact lens that combined the superior visual acuity of a rigid gas permeable lens with the comfort of a soft contact lens. The revolutionary SynergEyes® hybrid contact lens provides a stable, high oxygen permeable rigid center that delivers consistent, crisp, clear vision while the outer skirt allows for the all-day comfort of a soft lens. Lens designs are available for patients with hyperopia, myopia, astigmatism, keratoconus, presbyopia, and refractive errors following corneal surgery and trauma.
TargeGen: is a biopharmaceutical company that develops small molecule kinase inhibitors for the treatment of cancer, pulmonary, ocular and certain other diseases. The Company’s technology focuses on myeloproliferative diseases, characterized by the overproduction of certain blood components.
Vitreoretinal Technologies: Founded in 1999 with the goal of developing and commercializing innovative, therapeutic systems for the treatment of serious ocular diseases. VRT focuses on vitreoretinal ophthalmic diseases and complications related to ophthalmic surgery. Currently, they are studying the safety and efficacy of Vitreosolve® ophthalmic intravitreal injection in patients with nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy.