There was a full house at the Yale Stem Cell Center in New Haven August 28 at a press conference organized to discuss the implications of a judicial ruling that would cut off federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. This is a blow to an important area of research but reminds us how wise Connecticut was to establish its own policy in the area. View press release.

In June CURE teamed up with the venture capital firm Columbus Growth Partners and Yale University to organize the first annual Symposium on US–China Life Science Industry Collaboration. Designed to introduce US Biotech to the Chinese opportunity, the meeting attracted more than 90 attendees from New York to Massachusetts. The successful event was one more sign of Connecticut’s growing role in the biotech industry in the Northeastern US.

Over the summer MoneyTree® data were released indicating that venture capital investment in the life sciences in Connecticut totaled $16.5 million for 2Q 2010, representing 67% of total VC investment in the state for the period. Companies benefiting from the investments included CURE members Mira Dx and Soft Tissue Regeneration.

As always, Connecticut Innovations (CI), the quasi-public organization that invests in early-stage Connecticut technology companies, played an important part in bringing new capital to the state’s biotech sector. CI stepped up to the plate in 3Q with an additional investment in Shelton’s Cara Therapeutics, part of a $15 million series D round.

Furthermore, in July CI sponsored a Connecticut SBIR (small business innovation research) breakfast honoring 65 companies that have captured $47 million in federal R&D grants and related commercial contracts. Awardees included CURE members Affomix, Arbor Fuel, and Genomas.

But is CI doing all it could do? That was the subject of a July 4 op-ed in the New Haven Register by venture capitalist David Scheer and Jon Soderstrom, managing director of Yale’s Office of Cooperative Research. The two argue that CI could be even more effective and could attract an even greater number of startups to Connecticut if it had access to more investment capital to pursue its mission.

Attracting capital is a critical responsibility of an emerging industry, but closely intertwined with it is attracting good people. Here Connecticut’s landmark decision to promote stem cell research has borne fruit.

It was in part because of Connecticut’s progressive stem cell policy that Haifan Lin was attracted to the state, where he is now director of the Yale Stem Cell Center. Now, just a few year’s later, he has received a Pioneer Award from the National Institutes of Health, given to scientists doing “innovative and potentially groundbreaking research.”

“I am very grateful for the foresight and support of the State of Connecticut,” Lin told CURE. “I think my fellow researchers will agree that the Connecticut Stem Cell initiative has not only allowed stem cell researchers in Connecticut to make new discoveries, but also generated innovative thinking that has had a broad impact on stem cell research as a whole. Local research projects lead to federal grants as well as private donations that help Connecticut become a leader in stem cell research and create new job opportunities for the community.”

Research universities like Yale and UConn not only attract a highly educated research workforce, they also often result in spinouts that take wing as successful commercial enterprises. A recent example is CGI: Over the summer it was announced that the Yale-based spinout would be acquired by California-based Gilead Sciences but would continue operations in Branford as a wholly-owned subsidiary. Similarly, Ion Torrent, the brainchild of serial entrepreneur Jonathan Rothberg, who also brought Curagen and 454 Life Sciences to the New Haven area, is being acquired by Life Technologies, but will keep its presence in Guilford.

The road to developing a commercially practical new drug is long and hard. Here in Connecticut the life sciences scene is enriched by the presence of several established pharmaceutical companies, including Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Pfizer, and it can be a roller-coaster ride monitoring their successes and setbacks as they develop new therapies.

Pfizer, which has its worldwide R&D operations headquartered in Groton, is a case in point. On the one hand, we shared their recent disappointment with results for sunitinib for lung cancer, and in having to suspend studies of tanezumab. On the other hand, we cheered the company on as they announced that their Inspra® cardiovascular medication was so successful in its double-blind, placebo-controlled trial that further recruitment for the study could be halted.

For big pharma, it is not so much the success or failure of individual drugs as the overall strategic vision of the company that will determine its enduring success. It was with that in mind that we recognized Pfizer last April at the CURE Annual Meeting for their vision in investing in multiple approaches to treating Alzheimer’s Disease.

Speaking of the CURE Annual Meeting, our guest speaker then was the distinguished health care economist Professor Uwe Reinhardt of Yale and Princeton. He delivered a first-class analysis of how the new federal health care bill might affect the life sciences industry. Since then, he has added several pieces on the subject to his New York Times blog, including Is Health Care Special?; Can Medical Technology Solve the Health Care Problem?; Nudging People to Buy Health Insurance; and Pitfalls of the Health Mandate.

Paul R. Pescatello is President and CEO of CURE.
ppescatello@curenet.org

Link to Paul's other columns

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