An alliance for science

30-09-2014

An alliance for science

wong yu liang / Shutterstock.com

The Bay Area of California has one 
of the greatest concentrations of life 
sciences companies in the world, 
but its biotech community is being 
threatened by the seemingly 
unstoppable rise of large technology businesses. LSIPR spoke to Christopher Stewart, chair, and Robert Eyler, 
vice chair, of the new North Bay 
Life Science Alliance to find out 
how it plans to strengthen the network in the area.

Since 1976, when Genentech labelled South San Francisco the “birthplace of biotechnology”, hundreds of life sciences companies have set up in the Bay Area of California to take advantage of its proximity to San Francisco and the respected academic centres nearby: the Universities of California Berkeley and San Francisco, and Stanford University.

According to the self-described custodian of the Bay Area life sciences cluster, BayBio, there are now nearly 1,000 life sciences companies in the Bay Area and Northern California, which directly and indirectly employ 125,000 people. According to BayBio, the cluster generated $13 billion in revenue in 2013 and its total market value was about $129 billion.

Abbott, Medtronic and Baxter all have bases in the Bay Area, and HIV/AIDS drug maker Gilead has its headquarters there.


biotechnology; Medtronic; Gilead; NBLSA; BIO International Convention

LSIPR