A Preview of

Heart of Gold: The Bioscience Industry in Southern California

Coming in July 2001

Despite many indications that show strong potential for growth, the region's bioscience industry still faces challenges, such as in real estate and recruitment, according to a new research report to be released next month from larta, entitled Heart of Gold: The Bioscience Industry in Southern California.

Southern California has both more bioscience companies and employees than either San Diego or the Bay Area, but the issue of talent recruitment continues to surface again and again. "Generally speaking, we do not have a pool of people here that you can draw on--people just don't look to Southern California as a destination place," said Bruce Blomstrom, the Chairman of the Board of Nanostream, who was interviewed for the report. The problem of human resource deficiency appears to be a deeper and more complex issue than at first appears. It is true that other California regions are largely perceived as having stronger activity and greater opportunity. "Many of the graduates from UCLA and Caltech will want to stay here if the opportunity is here," said Blomstrom. "But a lot of the opportunity has been elsewhere, so people tend to go elsewhere. In time, as the area grows in terms of the quantity of bioscience businesses, it will be an attractive place to move to, but I don't think we're there yet. There are opportunities here now that weren't here five or ten years ago because of the growing number of companies."

The research data hints that a critical time may be arriving for Southern California. According to the Heart of Gold Report, Southern California saw a 4.9% annual increase in bioscience employment, according to the most recent data available. The report also shows that the region has more graduate students in the biosciences than other comparable regions. "The lack of local talent in Southern California has been widely discussed as a reason for the region's lack of major growth," the report states. "A closer examination of the actual job market indicates that it may not be the case that there is a lack of available employees within the region, but rather that potential employees and existing opportunities are being improperly matched."

John Andersen, Director of Strategic Technology Investment and Advanced Technology Program Manager at Beckman Coulter, is President of the Irvine-based Life Sciences Industry Council, LINC (profiled in this issue), which organized the first life sciences career fair (for mid-career professionals) last May in Irvine. "One of the issues our members talk about a lot is staffing and human resource issues," said Andersen. "There was a lot of interest in the career fair that we held. There were many companies participating, which indicates some of the staffing difficulties that companies face in this business. Recruiting in these areas tends to be very difficult and challenging given that there just aren't enough people to go around and everybody has the same demands. "

Space Value

Real estate plays a unique and significant role in bioscience because of the strict and particular requirements many companies have when building or selecting space for locating, requirements which are frequently not met in most existing buildings. When constructing these facilities, it can often become a delicate matter with zoning issues and the commonly negative perceptions community residents have about living near bioscience research facilities.

"Aside from the specific needs of bioscience companies, a lack of total space has also prevented growth," the report states. "As Southern California continues to be one of the fastest-growing regions, the diminishing availability of constructed space and available land contributes to the impression that Southern California is not a good place to locate a growing business."

Al Mann, founder and Chairman of MiniMed and who was interviewed for the Heart of Gold Report, told larta that "most companies looking to grow and expand usually prefer to have new space constructed to their needs, rather than trying to make improvements to old or leased buildings. But in this area, that's a problem because there's not much land available for growth."

A solution to this real estate crunch implemented by other areas around the country is the development of bioscience clusters. Often, these clusters take the form of research parks. These research parks are a specially constructed set of buildings in a campus-like setting. Another type of cluster is the bioscience corridor, which is a group of companies located usually along the same street or neighborhood. In Southern California, there are areas such as Orange County and Pasadena that have a significant number of companies and that are currently working towards developing bioscience research parks. Currently there are proposed clusters in progress in San Pedro, West Los Angeles, the USC Health Science campus area, and Irvine. When any such clusters will reach completion, however, can often be uncertain.

Research parks and bioscience corridors can create spaces that allow opportunities for collaboration between researchers and the sharing of costly lab space. In the long term, the development of various types of clusters can also provide visibility to attract investment, media attention, and the interest of skilled researchers and employees seeking to live near a large source of bioscience employers.

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Scheduled for release in July, Heart of Gold: The Bioscience Industry in Southern California is the first bioscience industry report that defines and assesses the scope of the bioscience region of Southern California. Some of the other topics detailed in the report include bioscience investment, educational institutions, research and development programs, technology transfer, and mergers and acquisitions. For more information on the report, click here.

by Wendy Hall
larta staff writer