$150B to heal R&D

California Democrat Anna Eshoo, who represents a Silicon Valley district in the midst of the Bay Area's biotech hub, Stanford University and the Sand Hill Road VC cluster, is laying out a life sciences agenda as part of a campaign to jump the seniority queue to become ranking member of the House Energy & Commerce Committee.

A shoo-in for re-election in November, Eshoo is raising cash and campaigning hard to persuade House Democrats to name her to replace fellow Californian Henry Waxman as the top Democrat on the E&C Committee. Waxman is retiring after 40 years in Congress (see BioCentury, March 17)...