CURE’s summer included our biopharma cookout on the Connecticut shoreline, back by popular demand at the Oswego Inn in Branford. (See the article in this issue.) Thanks to our generous sponsors and the enthusiastic employees of CURE member organizations, it was a fitting climax to the season just past.

Venture capital activity in the state was muted during 2Q 2008, restrained by the troubled national economy. Nevertheless, the Life Sciences sector drew more than $40 million to the state in the first half of the calendar year, including a $15 million Q2 investment in Branford-based Optherion. (See the article in this issue.)

CURE member organizations continued to make news over the summer. 454 Life Sciences, the sequencing equipment company now part of Roche, reported their role in publishing the complete Neanderthal mitochondrial genome sequence, Alexion announced a new patent, and HistoRx and Rib-X announced new management appointments, among other developments. (See the CURE Member News Digest in this issue.)

Recent member news includes an announcement by MannKind Corporation that they will be holding an official ceremony September 17 to mark the expansion in Danbury of their production facility for the company’s exciting new insulin product. Although the company is headquartered in California, it was attracted to Connecticut by a number of factors, including the state’s unique investment tax credit exchange program and the strength of the local biotech-ready workforce. Indeed, MannKind was one of the many local companies that helped absorb workers displaced when Bayer relocated R&D facilities from West Haven.

The progress of this company in Connecticut is encouraging to behold. They came for the R&D but they’ve stayed to manufacture. This is going to be of great benefit to the state and reminds us that we need to do more to attract and retain manufacturing as well as research operations in the bioscience sector.

With Labor Day behind us, we have begun putting together a new season of the popular CURE/Yale BioHaven Entrepreneuship Series in New Haven, and are looking into additional program series at other locations in the state. Watch for further details.

Also scheduled for later this month in Farmington is the 1st Annual Connecticut Stem Cell Technology Symposium. Sponsored by CURE and Applied BioSystems, together with University of Connecticut Stem Cell Institute, the day-long event will cover key developments in the stem cell area and provide networking opportunities.

Meanwhile, work continues on StemCONN 09, the international stem cell symposium that will be held this coming March 23-24 in New Haven. Because of its $100 million stem cell research grant program, Connecticut has emerged as an innovative national and international leader in the field of stem cell research.

Paul R. Pescatello is President and CEO of CURE.