BayBio makes local pitch to BIO attendees

BayBio makes local pitch to BIO attendees
San Francisco Business Times - by Ron Leuty
May 16, 2008

How are you going to keep biotechs down in San Diego after they've seen Mission Bay?

Trade group BayBio and a cadre of Bay Area economic development agencies next month will lead international delegations on a two-day tour of the region's biotech delights as a precursor to the huge Biotechnology Industry Organization International Convention in San Diego.

Leaders of the organizations hope to showcase the Bay Area before 20,000-plus biotech and biotech service providers converge June 17-20 on San Diego. The idea is to eventually add to the region's roster of international companies.

BayBio -- working with the San Francisco Center for Economic Development, the East Bay Economic Development Alliance, the Silicon Valley Economic Development Alliance, the Solano Economic Development Corp. and the Sacramento Area Commerce and Trade Organization -- has sent more than 4,000 invitations to delegations from Australia, Finland, Japan, Hong Kong and other overseas attendees of the annual BIO convention.

The local tours, set for June 12-13, have space for as many as 100 visitors, said BayBio President Matt Gardner.

"A major purpose is to look at the investment opportunities here and the partnering opportunities here," Gardner said. "For us, it's more a matter of showcasing what makes this region a region of excellence across the spectrum" of companies, academia and research organizations.

The Bay Area already is home to several international biotechs. What's more, it is picking up endorsements as Irish drugmaker Elan Corp. consolidates operations in South San Francisco and Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. of Japan assembles an antibody research center here.

Two waves of biotech tourists -- one leaving from San Jose, the other from Sacramento -- will stop at biotech powerhouses Amgen Inc. and Genentech Inc. in South San Francisco, Mendel Biotechnology Inc. in Hayward, Stanford University and the University of California, Davis, among other sites.

The groups will meet in San Francisco, tour UCSF and the J. David Gladstone Institutes, have a cocktail reception at Mission Bay and continue their tours in opposite directions June 13.

That leaves the visitors four days to get to San Diego, Gardner said -- time they could spend enjoying Wine Country or other Bay Area attractions.

"San Diego will be having its own tours," said Michael Ammann, president of the Solano Economic Development Corp., whose jurisdiction includes some of the region's largest biotech manufacturing facilities. "This is an opportunity to have them look at the largest cluster of biotech companies."

The smaller economic development groups would not have had the clout or the financial power to attract several overseas delegations at once, Ammann said, so the tour demonstrates how the wider Bay Area can come together to attract companies.

"You have to sell California to sell Solano County," Ammann said, "and you have to sell Northern California to sell Solano County."

The visitors pay for their transportation to the Bay Area and hotel nights.

San Francisco last hosted the BIO convention in 2004. Atlanta is scheduled for next year's event.

Foreign delegations -- whether government officials or companies -- occur frequently, Gardner said. But this familiarization tour affords critical mass.

"This is the world's oldest, largest and most productive life science cluster. If you boil it out, you lose some of that critical mass," he said. "The greatness of this region and the critical mass here sometimes have to be painted with a broader brush."

rleuty@bizjournals.com / (415) 288-4939