What’s Inside: Announcing the Launch of CEO Cornerstone; Merck Acquires Caraway for $610M; Our Collaboration with State Assembly Select Committee on Biotechnology; and more.
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What’s Happening at Biocom California
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Introducing CEO Cornerstone
We are excited to announce CEO Cornerstone, a new initiative launched in collaboration with The Leadership Edge. CEO Cornerstone is a peer-to-peer leadership development program tailored specifically for life science CEOs and features customized programming led by experts who understand what it takes for CEOs to elevate their leadership to the next level. Along with informative sessions, CEO Cornerstone will provide participants with the chance to authentically connect with peers who are leading similar-stage companies. Our first cohort kicks off in San Diego in March 2024, and we’re looking for our first group of CEOs to participate in this journey. Applications are open now through February 9, 2024, and are not limited to Biocom California members.
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Innovation Without Borders: Bridging California and Korea
Following our successful Korean life science trade delegation in October, which connected twelve of our member companies with key Korean life science organizations, we continued our cross-border collaboration with a trade delegation to South Korea this month. Coordinated with KoreaBIO, San Diego Regional EDC, and the World Trade Center San Diego, the delegation included leaders from San Diego-based life science companies including Illumina, DexCom, and Tioga Research, along with San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, San Diego County Board Chairwoman Nora Vargas, and our Chief Business Officer, Rick Fultz. During the mission, a commercial partnership agreement was established between Dexcom, Kakao Healthcare Corp., and Huons Global Co. to domestically commercialize Dexcom’s G7 continual glucose monitoring system. Additionally, UC San Diego and Yonsei University signed a bilateral campus-wide MOU to facilitate the commercialization of campus-developed technologies.
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Industry Intelligence & Member Moments
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- Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals filed an application for clearance to initiate a Phase 1/2a clinical trial of ARO-DM1, the company’s investigational RNA interference therapeutic for type 1 myotonic dystrophy.
- Bayer and Hurdle launched a precision health strategic partnership to advance consumer innovations in the emerging area of healthy aging.
- Cytovale raised $84 million to support the roll out of its rapid ER sepsis diagnostic test which aims to offer a diagnosis in ten minutes for patients showing signs of an infection.
- Eli Lilly is partnering with Alexandria Real Estate Equities to expand Lilly’s Gateway Labs model and plans to open a new location in the University Town Center area in the first half of 2024.
- Erasca achieved key milestones for Phase 3 clinical trial design for its therapy for NRAS mutant melanoma and results from its Phase 2 trial for its therapeutics for recurrent glioblastoma.
- Genelux received FDA fast track designation for Olvi-Vec for the treatment of platinum resistant/refractory ovarian cancer.
- Karius shared results of its multi-center study showing the Karius Test improves the diagnosis and management of pneumonia in patients undergoing treatment for blood cancer.
- Merck acquired preclinical biotech Caraway for $610 million, adding several programs focused on Parkinson’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases.
- Synterex attended the American Medical Writers Association and exhibited its revolutionary, first-in-class AI tool, AGILEWriter.ai, which streamlines the creation of informed consent forms and other plain language documents.
- Thermo Fisher Scientific and Flagship Engineering expanded their partnership and will work together to form, develop, and commercially scale new platform companies.
- University Lab Partners was awarded $2 million from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Build to Scale program to accelerate scalable ventures.
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Funding Bill Passed to Avert a Government Shutdown Until 2024
On a bipartisan basis, Congress voted on a short-term spending bill to avert a government shutdown. President Joe Biden signed the bill shortly after, securing funding for some agencies and programs until January 19 and all others through February 2.
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California State Assembly Select Committee on Biotechnology
Biocom California collaborated with the California State Assembly Select Committee on Biotechnology’s Chairman, Chris Ward, to host two roundtable discussions over the last few months. The first was on September 27 at BioscienceLA, where member companies presented on the Greater LA industry landscape and future workforce needs. The second was on October 18 in San Diego and covered rare diseases, barriers to access for patients, women’s health, and disparities in coverage. Policymakers in attendance between the two events included Assemblymembers Isaac Bryan, Juan Carrillo, Vince Fong, Mike Gipson, Diane Papan, Rick Chavez Zbur, Liz Ortega, Kate Sanchez and Akilah Weber; and Senator Catherine Blakespear. Participating Biocom California member companies were TAB Diagnostic, Grifols Biologicals, Kite, Bayer, Biogen, BioMarin, Illumina, Rady Children’s Institute for Genomic Medicine, and Ultragenyx.
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Election Results for San Diego County’s 2023 Special Election
Monica Montgomery Steppe won the District 4 Supervisorial race with 61.57% of the votes, with opponent Amy Reichert conceding on November 8. The Chula Vista City Attorney race will go to a run-off election, with Marco Verdugo receiving 39% of the votes and Bart Miesfeld close behind with 37.9%. Fallbrook and Rainbow residents voted overwhelmingly to detach from the San Diego County Water authority, with over 94% of the votes in support of each measure. Final results are expected on or before December 7.
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Tackling Los Angeles’ Homelessness Crisis
Both the Los Angeles City Council and Mayor’s office are attempting to tackle the city’s homelessness crisis through housing solutions. The City Council voted to have the city’s Planning Department draft an ordinance to strip zoning and size restrictions that limit how much permanent supportive housing can be constructed on city-owned land. Mayor Karen Bass’s Executive Directive 1 aims to expedite the development of over 8,000 affordable housing units by shortening project processing times.
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Changes to Approving New Housing in San Francisco
San Francisco is notorious for its difficult permitting process for new housing and California officials are demanding change. The California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) released a report that found the city’s policies and politics stifle the construction of apartments or condos at nearly every step, driving developers to pursue business elsewhere. Under state law, HCD’s Housing Accountability Unit will now require the city to change a number of practices and rewrite city laws governing the housing permitting and appeals process, making it easier to build homes in San Francisco.
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Biocom California
For over 28 years, Biocom California has helped move the life science industry forward with transformative resources that enable companies to make meaningful connections. With a membership base of over {{{dynamic_content_1600}}} companies, we connect our members to each other so they can collaborate and work stronger and smarter together. We connect organizations to capital investment and purchasing solutions so they can grow faster and work more efficiently. We’re their link to advocacy that fights for innovation and we provide an environment where their business and talent can thrive. Biocom California is how the life science industry gets connected.
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