'The pieces are starting to come together:' Biocom CA exec dissects L.A. life science industry
Since 2020, the number of life science establishments in California has grown 6%. Within the Los Angeles market in particular, the sector is strengthening its foothold.
While San Diego and the San Francisco Bay Area long have been and continue to be among the industry leaders nationally, nearly 4,000 establishments in the life science sector are now in operation across L.A., Ventura and San Bernardino counties, employing roughly 97,000 people, according to a 2023 analysis by Biocom California, a nonprofit organization that focuses on the state's life science industry.
Support from local academic institutions is playing into the development of the industry across the Los Angeles area as well. Last year, universities in the five-county Greater Los Angeles market (L.A., Ventura, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties) received $1.7 billion in funding from the National Institutes of Health. UCLA led the way, with 894 grants for a total of $594 million, the fourth-highest amount in the state.
Earlier this month, Dan Gober, a lifelong Angeleno, was named executive director of Biocom California's L.A. office. In a recent interview with L.A. Business First, Gober talked about the opportunities that exist for the life science space in L.A. given the city's talent base, scientific and educational institutions, and networking pillars. He also discussed how the sector has grown to its current standing in the city and how it can continue to increase its impact.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
How has the life science scene in L.A. changed since you got started in the industry 30 years ago?
We're seeing a lot of the pieces come together. L.A. tends to be a fragmented group. One of the things I'm starting to see is we're starting to build all of the pieces, and people are feeling like communities can intertwine a little bit more. The networking is tighter, as is the ability to integrate across different functional areas.
When I first started my career, you had to go into a headquarters position, and most of those are on the East Coast or San Francisco. Now we're starting to see some good successes here: Amgen is always a hallmark, but now in Pasadena we’ve got Xencor that’s doing very well, and we've got Puma Biotech in L.A. You're starting to name lots of different organizations that have built full capacity here. That's definitely different than when I started, but I also feel like all the different pieces and pillars to repeat and build that and make it vibrant are all starting to come together.
California's life science sector has seen the number of establishments in the state grow 6% since 2020. What do you think is responsible for that growth, and what is attracting people to California as opposed to Massachusetts or Washington?
Again, the pieces are starting to come together. We're seeing the ability to point out some successes here. I'm not an expert on what has really made that happen, but you can now start to name companies in the L.A. area that have been successful, that have started from research organizations all the way up to full commercial establishments. People are starting to believe in that, so investment is starting to come in, capital development is starting to come here, the cities are starting to realize that this brings good and vibrant jobs into their communities. The LAEDC (L.A. Economic Development Corp.) has recognized life sciences as one of the top five growth areas that they want to focus on and support. I think the community as a whole really believes that all the pieces are all here.
Why do you think companies choose L.A. rather than San Francisco or San Diego?
If you look at Biocom as a whole, we've got a strong presence in all those areas. When we think of building organizations, we look all across California, but I do think that L.A. has been a little bit overlooked. Maybe it’s because of the disbursement of talent, but when you think about building an organization in Long Beach, it's very different than going into Pasadena, or downtown L.A., or the Westside. We've got 88 cities that that encompass the L.A. area. Sometimes there's specific rules and regulations that have been hindrances — geographically dispersed, different city managers to deal with to build in different areas — whereas San Francisco and San Diego in particular have pulled that together. But that's starting to change. I really believe with the LAEDC coming in and starting to say, “We're gonna make this streamlined and put a focus on this,” that this is the right opportunity to build here.
The academic institutions have been strong here. We've seen different scientists come out of here, and now they're going to stay because the space is being made available to fully develop. The cost of doing that is competitive now in Los Angeles as well. Getting grant funding, getting venture capital backing, all those things are very important to making life science vibrant here.
What do you think is the role of elected officials in California in helping the life science industry thrive, not just in L.A., but across California?
We just saw an example of this in the city of Pasadena. City officials are looking at what they can do with their zoning and their commercial space to make it more attractive to lab space and life science research and development, and they're being very proactive in looking at that. They've got opportunities with some of the land development that is coming into play there. So what can city officials do? They can start to streamline those processes so that the infrastructure is built and put into place. They can support them with some of the grant funding and different items like that. These pieces are all being recognized now as being important in developing life science and being able to make it thrive. Part of my interest in Biocom was we're able to coordinate and support a lot of those pieces. Advocacy is a strength of what we do and what we participate in.
Do you have thoughts on how the life science industry can help California recover economically after recent turbulence, post-pandemic?
One of the things about life science, especially research and development, is these are generally collaborative type of endeavors. We've seen a lot of people flee and work remotely out of state, but to support research and development you need to have people in offices, in the lab space, making that happen. The life science industry averages almost $100,000 a year in salary, so good living wages for people to be able to be in California and have a good quality of life here. Supporting these types of industries really helps make some of these urban communities very vibrant and helps us be able to provide for strong living wages in the area.
What’s the biggest challenge that L.A.’s life science industry is facing?
I believe there's still a challenge in the community to reach across some of those (geographic) boundaries, but there's also some very strong clusters and hubs that we can support and build our community. One of the things that Biocom is doing is creating networking opportunities. That, to me, is probably always going to be one of those challenges but also could be a very good opportunity to build some kind of microhubs in different areas that specialize in different parts of the life science community.
Do you have a message you would send to companies that are maybe looking to come to L.A. to either open up a headquarters or to just get started?
We have all the pieces in place in Los Angeles. Don't overlook it as a vibrant hub. The investment is coming into play with support from community leaders, and our city council is very strong.
If they come into L.A., Biocom is here to help them. We can provide support in a number of ways, connect them to different leaders within the industry, advocate for them, support them through educational areas. Those are different things that are part of all the pillars of what we can offer through Biocom in a number of ways.
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