(USA)
California’s multi-trillion dollar economy outperforms that of most fully fledged countries. Last year it ranked as the world’s sixth largest, according to World Bank GDP statistics.
It excels across a whole range of industries, including biotechnology. The city of San Diego, for example, has quickly established itself as one of the sector’s international powerhouses. Mayor Kevin Faulconer has labelled it ‘the center of the genomics universe’.
And with good reason. Homeboy J. Craig Venter ‘was the first to map the entire human genome in 2000 as part of a broad international science initiative‘ and it is home to renowned institutions, including the Salk Institute and The Scripps Research Institute.
Mayor Faulconer also recently cited figures released by Biocom which revealed there was $33.6 billion in economic activity – across the County – linked to biotech. It has also twice hosted the world’s biggest biotech event, the BIO International Convention, and will do so again next month at the city’s Convention Center.
“San Diego’s booming innovation economy is leading the way on everything from drones to genomes. That’s why San Diego is the perfect host city for BIO 2017 this June – a convention that brings together biotech industry leaders from around the world to showcase the exciting discoveries being made in life sciences,” Faulconer said.
Joanne Duncan, president of Membership and Business Operations for BIO 2017 organisers, the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), added:“Hosting our convention, the world’s largest, in San Diego for the third time in nine years represents the industry’s recognition of how discoveries in the field of genomics are giving patients new hope for cures.”
