Editor, Jason Schaff In this issue, Eric Billingsley’s report on the local biotech industry is a good snapshot of the state of the industry as we move deeper into 2010. I believe that the most important thing about the report is that it identifies clearly key elements that are necessary to grow a vibrant and successful biotech sector. Identifying these elements came partly from comparing what we have here with what they have in neighboring San Diego, one of the hotbeds of biotech in the world. Although we may never be a San Diego in terms of number of biotech companies and the support network and infrastructure that exists there, but we need to know exactly what we could be if everything clicks. I’m not going to repeat Eric’s report here but I do want to elaborate on one thing he mentions as to why biotech has continued to grow in San Diego – the role of the public sector. I believe that’s an area where we need to focus on more tightly locally. It may not be a major player in the process, with investment capital and talent from nearby academic institutes probably outweighing it, but it looks like public sector support is needed to keep the process moving. The City of San Diego supports the growth of life sciences in that region. As Eric reports, the city does not offer a large incentive package to companies moving to the area but helps in easing the process of obtaining permits. San Diego Regional Economic Development Corp adds to this by marketing the region. The city also helped launch a business incubator. Our local biotech industry (and for our purposes, I’m going to put medical device companies into the biotech category since we have a lot of these firms) stretches mostly along the so-called 101 Corridor from the West Valley through Calabasas and into Ventura County and moving on up the coast. But another biotech cluster is located in the North Valley and up through Santa Clarita. It’s an area encompassing two counties, which makes public sector support a little more complicated, and several independent cities the largest being the City of Los Angeles which isn’t known for focusing on anything that would be business friendly nor does it have any money for anything. But more can be done, if only in the marketing arena to promote our area as a great place for biotech. Our report tell us that we have a lot of what is necessary to build a much larger and more successful biotech sector – real estate space, pool of talent, biotech training at Valley-area colleges and universities, good quality of life – we just need to pull it all together on the public sector and quasi-public sector level. We need to get city officials together and officials from economic development agencies together and in consultation with the private biotech people come up with a laser-beam focused strategy of pumping up this area to attract more clean biotech and related industries. These are clean jobs and high-paying jobs. Who doesn’t want this type of industry here? Public and economic development officials need to keep biotech on their calendar. Meet about it. Talk about it and develop a cohesive marketing and job attraction strategy. I will repeat that I’m not talking about spending a lot of public money on this right now – just devoting some brainpower to it. We need to think on a regional level on this one. There has been a lot of talk just in Los Angeles County over the years about building a cohesive biotech cluster and not necessarily just in our Valleys area. But movement has been slow. I’m not suggesting that government or quasi-public agencies should be relied upon solely to build this cluster. It’s largely a private effort. But in a marketing or PR role, government could actually be useful for once, I think. Business Journal Editor Jason Schaff can be reached at (818) 316-3125 or at [email protected].
