96.5 F
San Fernando
Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Local Startups Seek to Push the Biotech Envelope

The bioscience industry is a growing segment of the greater San Fernando Valley economy, as evidenced by the Business Journal’s Bioscience Companies list, which expanded this year to 25 firms. Previously, the 101 biotech corridor was made up of only a few large players such as Baxter International Inc., which spun off its bioscience operation in 2015. Now the stretch along the 101 freeway between the West San Fernando and Conejo valleys, along with areas of Ventura, Simi Valley, Moorpark and even Santa Clarita, are sprinkled with a large number of small biotechs and startups. Greg Cauchon, founder of bioscience incubator Ventura BioCenter and biotech support business Amethyst Life Sciences Inc., both in Thousand Oaks, said a predominant theme has been decentralization. Large pharma companies have trimmed their in-house research and now buy pipeline drugs from startups. As a result, small R&D companies have proliferated, often started by the same scientists who previously worked at the large corporations. “We play a role in this as an incubator,” Cauchon explained. “We try to get tech companies started and succeeding. We help the local ecosystem, and Amgen provides extra capacity.” Available talent In the Conejo Valley, many of these newer companies were started by either ex-employees or ex-executives of Thousand Oaks-based Amgen Inc., the No. 1 company on the Business Journal’s list, or No. 2 Shire in Westlake Village, which was formerly Baxter’s bioscience spinoff Baxalta Inc. In 2007, Amgen implemented a restructuring plan, slashing about 2,600 jobs. This left a lot of talent on the table to start endeavors of their own. More recently, Amgen announced its newest restructuring plan, where hundreds of employees at its Thousand Oaks facility will either be relocated, reassigned or laid off, which could lead to another round of bioscience startups in the region. “In total, we notified just under 500 individuals of changes to their roles taking effect over the next year and a half,” Amgen spokeswoman Kristen Davis wrote in an email to the Business Journal. Started by ex-Amgen executives, Kythera Biopharmaceuticals Inc. of Westlake Village, the maker of popular double-chin reducer Kybella, went public in 2012 and was sold for $2.1 billion to drug giant Allergan in 2015. From there, that same group of executives started Westlake Village-based Sienna Biopharmaceuticals Inc., No. 24 on the Business Journal’s list, which is currently developing laser hair removal and skin therapies. Cellular therapy developer Atara Biotherapeutics Inc. in Westlake Village, No. 20 on the list, got its start by licensing six pipeline drugs from Amgen. Now, the company is expanding into a new 91,000-square-foot building in Thousand Oaks. It plans on hiring 50 more employees to add to its Conejo Valley staff of 70 once in the new location by the end of the year. The Santa Clarita Valley draws from another source of growth at research and development campus Mann Biomedical Park in Valencia, which was created by billionaire innovator Alfred Mann, who died last year at the age of 90. During his life, Mann helped form a slew of medical device companies, many still located at Mann Biomedical Park, including No. 18 neuromodulation medical device developer Bioness Inc. and No. 25 inhalable insulin maker MannKind Corp. Just south of Santa Clarita, located at Mann’s Sylmar biomedical complex, No. 17 on the list, Second Sight Medical Products Inc., manufactures devices that restore limited vision to the blind. Dr. Robert Greenberg, chairman of the Mann-created company, said he has seen recent industry growth in the Santa Clarita region, particularly in the neurotechnology space. “Los Angeles and its surrounding area has the potential to be a (biotech) hub,” he said. “We have phenomenal local universities with Cal Tech, UCLA and USC and phenomenal health care facilities like Cedars-Sinai and City of Hope.” However, two challenges impede growth, he noted. One is many venture capital firms are located in Silicon Valley and hesitate to fund companies in Los Angeles, where the bioscience infrastructure is less established. Another is the difficulty accessing lab space as L.A. real estate is so expensive. Despite these challenges, Ventura BioCenter’s Cauchon said the Valley region is a great place for a bioscience company to flourish and expects to see the biggest growth among companies focused on immunological and cell therapies. “We have most of the ingredients to become a magnet for good biotech in this area, and are getting close to having all of them,” he said. “There’s lots of executive talent as well as technical talent here. Costs are high but are still reasonable compared to the biotech centers in San Diego, Boston and San Francisco.”

Featured Articles

Related Articles