Ian recently sat down with Dana Tennis of RetirementDNA to discuss how he came to San Diego from Cape Town and what the city of San Diego and the biotech community need to remain competitive in the global life sciences marketplace.

Q1: Ian, how did you end up in beautiful San Diego and to be working at the world's largest regional life science association?

I am most fortunate to have been born in Cape Town, one of the most beautiful cities in the world, and now live in America’s finest city. Almost 22 years ago I was offered an opportunity to work in San Diego. Being single and unattached I decided to take the plunge and explore my future in another country.

Working at BIOCOM came about mostly through fortuitous circumstances three and a half years ago and has turned out to be an incredible new career for me in the life science community.

Q2: What do you think was the seminal event for the biotech industry here in San Diego?

As many other areas are finding out, creating a successful cluster, like the one we have here in San Diego, takes several years and requires all of the following: Science, Talent, Infrastructure and Money. Over forty years ago the City of San Diego gave land on the Torrey Pines Mesa to Jonas Salk to create the Salk Institute across the street from the new university, University of California San Diego – this facilitated the formation of San Diego’s first successful life science company Hybitech in 1978. These were the seminal events that gave rise to the life science industry here in San Diego.

Q3: In a private session with leading politicians, what would you tell him about the biotech and life science industry or what would you ask him for?

That depends on whether you are talking about local, state or federal officials. There are distinctly different angles and issues at each of these levels. I am not politically savvy in this industry – I leave that to Joe Panetta, my boss, and the experts. But from my perspective, given that this is the leading industry both here in San Diego and in California I would request that more attention be given to helping our companies thrive and survive through tax incentives from both employment and manufacturing perspectives. It is very expensive to operate a company in California and in order to continue to thrive we will need assistance in this regard.

Q4: What have you taught your children about the biotech and life science industry?

I am most fortunate to have a wife who has worked in the industry here in San Diego, New York and in Basel, Switzerland. From a science perspective there is very little that I can teach my boys – Roxanne takes care of that – even though she has not actively worked in the industry for the past seventeen years. From my perspective I have been able to give my boys some great insight into the immense contribution this industry has and will continue to bring in helping cure the many diseases that afflict us all.

Q5: How do we attract, grow and KEEP biotech companies headquartered in San Diego?

As I said earlier, we are very well positioned as one of the leading life science clusters in the world. We have all the ingredients to sustain this but there is one additional criterion that sets us apart: the collaborative and community spirit is so strong in San Diego. There are many cases of companies and people who have relocated to San Diego and found this to be the most compelling factor to remain here. However, we cannot rely on this and the other factors mentioned earlier. We also have to work hard to create financial incentives through local and state governments that will help our region be more competitive with other up and coming regions.

Q6: If you could wave your magic wand, what would be your top three initiatives for San Diego?

In no particular order of preference:

• a larger airport to handle international traffic that would not require business travelers to have to transition through Los Angeles or San Francisco;

• tax credits and greater incentives for companies to establish a corporate presence here in San Diego;
• greater opportunities for the investment community to create an increased physical presence here in San Diego – create a financial hub of opportunity.

Q7: Tell us the key business development initiatives for BIOCOM over the next two to three years.

We have a new three year Strategic Plan that, from a business development perspective, calls for the following initiatives over the next two to three years: We are intently focused on positioning and promoting Southern California as a primary destination for life science investment and senior level talent.

This has and will continue to take the form of promoting investment in local companies by growing our Investor Conference and expanding the opportunity for non-local venture capitalists to establish a presence here in San Diego.

We recognize the value both to our members as well as the desire by many Asian/Pacific Rim countries to work together. To this end we have established an Asian Task Force with the goal of proactively developing business and investment channels between the two regions. Our first project is linked to the Bio International Convention being held here in San Diego in June. We will be co-hosting a day long workshop discussing China and India related issues. We are also in the planning stages of a large conference that aims to bring a large contingent from Asia and the Pacific Rim out here to meet and address issues and areas of mutual interest with companies here in California. This conference is slated to be hosted here in San Diego in March 2009.

Orange County is a large underserved market and we feel very confident that we can make a difference to the life science companies located there. Our public policy efforts on state and federal levels are very important to these companies who really have no united voice representing their needs and interests at this time. We will be opening an office in Irvine this year and host several events for the local community. Having a local presence up in Orange County will also afford these members access to the BIOCOM Purchasing Group whereby they would be able to obtain lab supplies and office supplies (as well as many goods and services) at greatly reduced prices.

Q8: Does outsourcing allow for more efficient capital investment for VC’s and start-ups? Can companies like Althea play a more important role?

Outsourcing is indeed becoming more and more important in the life science industry. It certainly makes for more efficient use of capital as the cost as well as the time to develop therapies becomes more and more expensive. The use of CRO’s is not a new phenomenon, what is gaining greater prominence is working with CRO’s and other similar groups beyond just a provider of services but also as partners with a vested interest in the successful and timely completion of the tasks at hand.

Locally Althea is a tremendous resource with their fantastic and modern new manufacturing facility. The role that they play is very important and is not predicated upon the growing desire for outsourcing. Their expertise is different from that of CRO’s like Quintiles and PRA. These organizations are extremely important in the biotechnology drug development continuum and have sites all over the world. Quintiles also has an investment group, NovaQuest that looks to invest in companies both from an investment and strategic standpoint. San Diego is so important to them that they now have an office here and have made several investments – Ambit being one of note.

Taking advantage of the outsourcing opportunities in Asia is now commonplace and an area of intense interest for future growth and opportunity for our member companies. Currently it is possible to further a drug candidate down the preclinical pathway with substantial cost savings. We have established an Asian Task Force to address what this means for our region and how we can harness this for the greater good of all.

Q9: You’ve been visiting with other countries, Ian. What differences are you seeing in foreign countries compared to the US?

From what I have been able to determine while visiting other life science areas is that they all uniformly are striving to sustain and grow their regions to compete for a larger piece of the life science industry. The difference is that these governments are dedicating significant resources to help make this happen. This is very much the case in countries like China, Korea, Singapore and India where the service side of the industry has grown in leaps and bounds. Having made great strides in this area the opportunities for scientific discovery and development have also begun to take hold.

Q10: What weaknesses do we need to focus on to further improve our positioning as a biotech cluster?

There is one area that everyone will always have to keep working on and that is access to capital. One of the main reasons I joined BIOCOM was to head up the Capital Development initiative that was part of the new Strategic Plan implemented in 2004. Our leaders recognized that we would need to implement a formal strategy to attract more capital and capital providers to the region in order to sustain and grow our cluster. I think that by all measures we have been successful in this effort thus far but still have a lot of work ahead of us.

Q11: When you and your wife want to enjoy a quiet dinner for two, where do you head to?

One of our most favorite places for a quiet and intimate dinner is the Nine-Ten Restaurant and Bar in downtown La Jolla. We have never had a bad meal there and the service has always been top class. Their “mercy of the chef” menu with wine pairings makes for a very special evening indeed.

Q12: San Diego has many great places to escape your thoughts. Where do you go to get away and think?

This may seem a little out of the ordinary but my most enjoyable escapes are getting out to Torrey Pines Golf Course early on Saturday or Sunday mornings. It is so quiet and beautiful, a real San Diego treasure. Here I am able to both be alone with my thoughts and enjoy the game I love very much.

Q13: Time for our classic question. What is the Wisenberg signature dish to prepare? What wine would you pour and what music would be playing during dinner?

I don’t even try to prepare anything in the kitchen as this is my wife, Roxanne’s, domain. She loves to entertain and will always experiment. I am constantly amazed at how she manages to prepare outstanding meat dishes despite being a vegetarian. Her sesame crusted seared Ahi with three different sauces accompanied by garlic mashed potatoes certainly ranks high. We are almost predominantly red wine drinkers and will dig deep in the “cellar” for one of our reds from South Africa. We do not have many left but when we were last in South Africa we were treated to a private tour of certain vineyards and brought back some 2002 Nederburg Caberbet Savignon that is very bold yet smooth with a distinct oak flavor. We are very partial to music from artists like Ottmar Liebert, Basia and Andrea Bocelli.

Thanks, Ian.