Three Life Science CEOs Explain Why Their Firms Are Staying in CaliforniaThree Life Science CEOs Explain Why Their Firms Are Staying in California

At a press briefing heralding the introduction of a new survey of biomedical companies, David Gollaher, PhD, president and CEO of the California Healthcare Institute asked a panel of three life science CEOs why their firms had decided to stay in California, despite the state's less-than-stellar business and fiscal environment.

Alex Lukianov, CEO of Nuvasive (San Diego) initially quipped that the weather was the main attraction, drawing laughter from crowd. But he added that there is a rich history of venture capital and venture-capital-funded companies in the state, resulting in a strong workforce. "That is why our roots are in San Diego," he said. "There is a lot of terrific engineers and scientists. The primary reason for us [to remain in California] is the workforce we are able to attract."

Stephen Cary, PhD, CEO of Omniox agreed, stating that his company was able to partner with an ex-FDA person who is giving time pro-bono to give the firm regulatory strategy. “And I think we have what I think are the top two law firms as far as corporate governance and intellectual property here, which took us on five years ago when we had no money,” he said. “And they have done maybe a million dollars of work for us at deferred costs.” Cary added that the company also appreciated hiring graduates from universities such as UC Berkeley, Stanford, UC San Francisco. 

Rick Winningham, CEO of Theravance also gave the state's university and research base high marks, but he added that the state's diversity was another consideration. "The incredibly diverse perspectives here enables an organization to get the best thinking and not fall victim to locking on a particularly solution." 

The attitude of the people in California enables people to take risks without fear of failure, Winningham added. "Fear of failure can make people and organizations range bound." 

On the previous day, Joe Almeida, president, CEO and director of Covidien offered similar advice suggesting that medtech companies learn to "fail fast, fail forward, and move on," when making their business global.  

As for globalization, the three panelists agreed that there was a growing pressure for life science firms to take at least consider doing business not just in other states but outside of the country. Lukianov said he would like to manufacture products in California but that status quo makes that difficult. "We've looked at manufacturing outside of the United States for a number of reasons," he said. "As much as we want to manufacture either in California or in other parts of the United States, we are challenged now to really move those operations outside of the United States," he said. "There is a lot more that could be done to attract manufacturers to California." 

—Brian Buntz