BIOCOM and Phase 3 Digital to Launch Video Series: “View From the Top”
In February, BIOCOM and Phase 3 Digital plan to launch “View From the Top”, a video series highlighting the Southern California life sciences industry and the issues that effect it.
Every week, Phase 3 Digital will distribute a new three-minute video clip. On each clip will be a question and answer session with a CEO from one of BIOCOM’s member companies that is in the news. “View From the Top” is one of the many ways in which BIOCOM seeks to spread the word about Southern California’s life-saving innovation in medical devices, diagnostics, therapeutics and drug discovery tools. The series will also feature service providers including clinical research organizations, consultants, legal experts and members of the financial community.
Hosted by veteran broadcast journalist and lawyer David Wohl, “View From the Top” will highlight companies making news with product approvals, major regulatory filings, collaborations and acquisitions. The series will also highlight BIOCOM's Washington, D.C. initiative, China initiative and other BIOCOM programs. “View From the Top” will initially be distributed to the thousands of people on the mailing list for BIOCOM’s electronic newsletter, the Biocommunique. To receive these video clips, or to participate in the series, please send an email to Terri Somers, BIOCOM’s Director of Communications, or call her at 858-455-0300 ext. 110.
Life Sciences LIVE at the San Diego Opera
Tickets are on sale now for the 14th Annual Life Sciences LIVE at the Opera on Friday, March 19, 2010.
Please join 2010 Co-Chairs: Marsha A. Chandler, Ph.D., of The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Harry F. Hixson, Jr., Ph.D., of BrainCells, Inc., Joe Panetta, President and Chief Executive Officer of BIOCOM and Ivor Royston, M.D., of Forward Ventures as they lead the way for this year’s unparalleled industry initiative and appreciate a night out at Opera for a beautiful production of Charles Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet.. Special event packages start at $155 per person and include VIP seating as well as admission to the pre-opera networking reception and dessert reception during Intermission. Last year over 300 Biotech professionals were in attendance - and this year looks just as promising! Please make your reservations in advance, as ticket inventory for Romeo and Juliet is limited, and seats are going quickly.
For full details, pricing and seating chart, please visit: www.sdopera.com/live
LifeLines Magazine Highlights Southern California’s Life Saving Innovation
LifeLines magazine, BIOCOM’s quarterly publication, covers Southern California’s life science industry, its innovation and its newsmakers that are saving lives and changing health care. More than 5,000 people across the nation receive LifeLines, including industry CEOs and other top-level decision makers. To subscribe to LifeLines, or learn about advertising opportunities, please contact Terri Somers, BIOCOM’s Director of Communications.
Xconomy Forum: San Diego Life Sciences 2030
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
6:00 pm - 8:30 pm
San Diego biotech has taken its share of lumps lately, but beyond the next quarter or next year, what kind of life sciences potential really exists here? What will the San Diego life sciences landscape look like 20 years from now? Will the region have grown as a world leader in university and corporate research, venture financing, and entrepreneurial activity? Which particular fields of life sciences and healthcare will be the most vibrant? We will bring together a select group of innovators and visionaries in the heart of La Jolla for an intimate, interactive discussion of these and other key questions about the future of San Diego-area life sciences.
Welcoming
Remarks:
- John Dunn, Executive Vice President, Biogen Idec New Ventures
Panelists:
- John Mendlein (moderator), Chairman of the Board, Fate Pharmaceuticals
- Paul Schimmel, Professor of Chemical Biology, The Scripps Research Institute; Cofounder or founding director of eleven biotechnology companies, of which six (Alkermes, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Avicena Group, Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Momenta Pharmaceuticals, Repligen Corporation) are publicly traded.
- Dan Bradbury, President and CEO, Amylin Pharmaceuticals; Chairman of BIOCOM
- Fred "Rusty" Gage, Professor and Vi and John Adler Chair for Research on Age-Related Neurodegenerative Diseases, Salk Institute for Biological Studies
Schedule:
Registration Opens:
5:15 pm
Program: 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
Reception: 7:30 pm - 8:30
pm
Location:
Biogen Idec
Research & Corporate
Campus
5200 Research Place
San Diego, CA
92122
Registration Information
BIOCOM Members rate: $50 (enter promotional code BIOCOM)
Early Bird Registration: $75.00 (ends March
10)
Regular Registration - $95.00
Student Registration - $20 (Limited number available. Valid student ID must be shown at registration desk.)
Walk-in Registration - $125.00
Tickets are transferable but not refundable.
SDSU, BIOCOM and Partners Receive $4.95 Million Stimulus Grant
San Diego State University, BIOCOM, San Diego Workforce Partnership, and the Southern California Biotechnology Center at Miramar College were awarded a three-year, $4.95 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor aimed at assisting the economic growth of the San Diego region’s life sciences industry. The Biotechnology Readiness, Immersion, Certification and Degrees for Gainful Employment (BRIDGE) project will provide education, training, and placement services to more than 1,000 veterans, incumbent workers and dislocated and unemployed workers within the San Diego region.
The BRIDGE project is a partnership linking training and higher education with employment opportunities that address the regional and state-wide workforce needs of the life sciences industry. The project will focus on the critical need for clinical laboratory scientists, medical laboratory technicians, medical physicists, and professional scientists. SDSU and Miramar College will provide certificate, degree, and Professional Science Master’s (PSM) programs. The BIOCOM Institute’s Life Science Immersion Program will provide training needed for successful biotechnology careers, and the BioCollaborative, created in cooperation with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, will provide an online resource to facilitate seamless transition from higher education to careers in the life sciences industry.
All of these courses are part of a pipeline that can be used to educate, recruit, train and place workers of all levels, from high school students to people with graduate degrees and military veterans.
The grant is part of more than $225 million in federal stimulus funding awarded by the Department of Labor to create jobs in health care and high growth industries under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. There were 55 grants awarded in this round of funding. The BRIDGE Project is one of four biotechnology programs to receive funding.
“These are jobs that will offer good wages and benefits far into the future,” said Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis.
As feedback from major biotechnology employers recognizes that many veterans may be optimal candidates for this job sector, the California Department of Veterans Affairs and military education offices will work with the BRIDGE Project to place a special focus on connecting veterans with employment opportunities in biotechnology and the life sciences.
“We are very pleased to be able to reach out to veterans, the unemployed and other job seekers in the San Diego region and enable these individuals and San Diego’s life sciences industry to benefit significantly from our nation’s Economic Stimulus investment in higher education,” said SDSU President Stephen L. Weber.
“SDSU and BIOCOM have a long history of partnership, beginning with the establishment of a master’s degree in regulatory affairs more than 10 years ago,” said BIOCOM President and CEO Joe Panetta. “This grant provides an opportunity to continue to build the homegrown workforce that we need in Southern California, while helping veterans and displaced workers move into skilled, high paying jobs that help this region continue as a hub of innovation that saves lives,” Panetta said.
Fifteen industry members wrote letters of support for this grant application. As partners, these companies are committed to providing internships, on-the-job training, apprenticeships and employment.
“A partnership between industry and academia is essential for the proper training of the current workforce, and building the future workforce, in order for Southern California to maintain its global prominence as a life sciences hub,” said Pete Leddy, Senior Vice President of Human Resources at Life Technologies in Carlsbad. Leddy, who is an industry advisor to the CSU Professional Masters Program, said: “The initiatives in the BRIDGE Program will enable industry partners to provide opportunities for some of the best and brightest minds interested in such cutting-edge life science fields such as bioinformatics.”
The program will be administered jointly through the San Diego State University College of Sciences and College of Extended Studies.
BIOCOM Welcomes New Members
Almac has the most comprehensive range of integrated drug development services available to the pharmaceutical / biotech industry. The privately owned company employing 2,500 dedicated professionals, is headquartered in Craigavon, Northern Ireland and has extensive facilities in the UK and US. Over 600 companies worldwide, including all the market leaders, use our services, testament itself to the quality, innovation and efficiency of our business
BioDx, Inc.
Capsugel has emerged as a global leader creating innovative dosage forms for the pharmaceutical and dietary supplements industries. Companies look to our leadership to help them formulate new products, enhance existing product lines, bring new products to market faster, and ensure their clinical trials are conducted without bias. With a diverse product line, including hard gelatin, softgel, non-animal, and fish gelatin capsules, we are at the forefront of bringing to market the highest quality polymers, each designed and tailored for specific applications. Combined with our innovative R&D machines, like the CFS 1200 liquid filling and sealing machine and our Xcelodose® S Precision Powder Micro-dosing System, customers count on Capsugel support from formulation to final production.
BRE Commercial has partnered with a group of the nation’s best private commercial real estate firms as founding fathers of a new company, Cassidy Turley. We are now one of the nation’s largest commercial real estate service firms. As Cassidy Turley BRE Commercial, we are one of Southern California’s leading commercial real estate services firms. Based in San Diego, the privately owned company is a full-service firm with vast experience in representing tenant and owner-occupiers, building owners, developers, and individual and institutional investors.
Leading Ventures identifies early stage technologies in the Development Phase, after Proof of Concept but Pre-Revenue, that can be accelerated to a revenue generating entity, early outlicense or sale to an acquiring firm. Our team of skilled venture professionals provides the capital, specialized expertise and network access required to create new business categories and build the next generation of world class companies. We minimize the uncertainty for entrepreneurs, researchers and scientists by effectively navigating the boundaries of today's complex business environment and exploiting opportunities before potential competitors are able to determine they exist.
Nanogea is a nano-bioscience company focused on commercializing the industry’s most sensitive single molecular detection platform based on its innovative NanoConeTM chemistry and NanoCone Enabled Atomic Force (NE-AFMTM) technology. Nanogea’s technology represents a dramatic advancement in the field of molecular diagnostics. Nanogea’s NE-AFMTM offers an unprecedented 106 X improvement in sensitivity over other leading diagnostic technologies, thereby enabling significantly early and accurate detection of diseases. Its superior sensitivity also eliminates the need for the complex and costly sample preparation as well as target amplification steps – which are known to cause false positives. Nanogea is currently working with the faculty members of UCLA, University of Texas, USC, and Catholic University of Korea to bring to people early and accurate diagnosis of cancer and infectious disease as well as other medical applications.
Noven Pharmaceuticals, Inc., headquartered in Miami, Florida, is a specialty pharmaceutical company engaged in the research, development, manufacture, marketing and sale of prescription pharmaceutical products. Effective August 27, 2009, Noven became an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of Hisamitsu Pharmaceutical Co., Inc. Noven’s business and operations are focused in three principal areas – transdermal drug delivery, the Novogyne joint venture with Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, and Noven Therapeutics, Noven’s specialty pharmaceutical unit.
We are a biotechnology company dedicated to the development of methods that permit rapid and efficient assessment of the safety of new drugs prior to their clinical usage. Specifically, we offer cell-based systems to examine nuclear receptor activation, the first step in drug-metabolizing enzyme induction. Our other services include studies to determine the metabolic stabilily, kinetics of metabolism, P450 reaction phenotyping, inhibition of P450 oxidation, and P-glycoprotein binding of new chemical entities. We have devised systems that are high in throughput without sacrificing quality. Puracyp also offers tools to study oxidative drug metabolism in vitro, including human liver microsomes that have been extensively characterized for P450 enzyme expression and specific antibodies to the individual P450s
Qualigen, Inc. develops, manufactures and markets the FastPack® IP System, a semi-automated, highly efficient in-office blood analyzer that provides rapid, quantitative immunoassay results right in the physician's office lab. The FastPack® IP System is a state of the art, lab quality analyzer designed to produce "Just in Time", quantitative test results quickly and easily while the patient is still present. The FastPack® IP System delivers laboratory precision and sensitivity within minutes at a fraction of the cost of most laboratory analyzers.
Endlessly enlivening. An irresistibly seductive resort hotel and spa. The St. Regis Monarch Beach commands the Dana Point coastline - an Orange County luxury resort, imaginatively conceived to envelop the senses, answer every desire and stir the soul. With its oceanfront allure, Tuscan style and timeless attentiveness, The St. Regis is California's only Forbes Five-Star resort and a AAA Five-Diamond retreat located in Orange County, CA. The SoCal experience at its most legendary, the perfect home base for exploring all things OC...and the address for inspired abandon.
Top 5 is a compensation consulting firm providing leading-edge advice and data services to its clients. Founded in 1992, Top 5 offers consulting expertise in areas such as executive compensation, broad-based rewards, sales force compensation and equity strategy development. We partner with companies in all stages of business - from pre-IPO to established publicly-traded organizations - to understand their business objectives and help align their pay strategies to meet those objectives. Our ability to assist a client with all of their needs, including program design (such as cost, market and technical analysis of alternative program designs and their impact on the company's financial statements and tax liability) and program implementation (which could include document drafting, employee communications, and program administration) allows us to be a true business partner of our client. Our philosophy is simple; we will exceed our clients' expectations through a practical approach to solving pay issues.
Velesco Pharmaceutical Services
Velesco Pharmaceutical Services provides contract research and manufacturing, services to pharmaceutical companies. Velesco was formed by former Pfizer R&D colleagues and specializes in formulation, analytical method development/validation, early phase GMP clinical supplies and consulting services. Velesco works with state of the art equipment in a high-quality (former-Pfizer) laboratory facility. Velesco delivers on time quality lab research, assistance with the FDA registration process and insightful consultation. Velesco’s founders, analytical chemists and drug formulation experts have worked on over 100 drug development projects and our analytical and formulation laboratory services are designed to ensure pharmaceutical companies reach the full therapeutic potential of their compounds. Every drug development project encounters its share of obstacles that can cause delays at best or failure at worst. The Velesco team has the experience to overcome these obstacles and keep your compound on track.
BIOCOM Thanks its Renewing Members