BioCentury
ARTICLE | Politics & Policy

Ryan to head Bay Area biotech initiative

November 12, 2013 12:44 AM UTC

The Bay Area BioEconomy Initiative officially debuted on Monday and named Una Ryan as chair. She will manage the initiatives' operations. The not-for-profit is aiming to bring together stakeholders in California from academia, industry, investors and government through recurrent symposia, collaboratives or consortia that Ryan said the initiative will initially fund. The initiative is aiming to "grow the Bay Area bioeconomy" and identified three strategic imperatives: increasing clinical trial efficiency; accelerating the timeline for drug discovery and development; and expediting the implementation of technological advances into everyday use in medicine.

On the clinical trials front, Ryan said the initiative is working with stakeholders to streamline legal contracting, research sponsors and patient recruitment. The initiative also is working to develop a statewide institutional review board (IRB) and master protocol agreements for universities and companies across California. ...