Biotech

"I walked into Herbst Pavilion to see a roomful of people. Look in one direction, and there was Alejandro "I just built another biotech" Zaffaroni. Turn in the other direction, and there was Genentech CEO Art "my market cap's bigger than Merck's" Levinson chatting with UCSF Chancellor Mike "my Nobel laureate tux is at the cleaners" Bishop and Herbert "I invented biotechnology" Boyer, the UCSF researcher who co-developed the technique for creating recombinant DNA."

Teh, indeed! Hard to imagine, but Bay area biotechs thought they actually had problems competing with other life-sciences regions a few years ago. Biotech there noticed that

"areas competing with the Bay Area as life science centers benefited from strong trade associations that brought their communities together and advocated for their needs."

Hmmh. Now they've got someone to look after them!

Apologies for the Portland-centered posts recently, but this is what Portland needs as well. From what I've heard at the (other) conference last week, there's now (finally) enough money available for start-up biotechs in Portland. Local universities and governments seem to be doing a fairly good job so far in nurturing the industry, though it'll always be smaller than the Bay area. The potential is there, carpe diem Portland!