Last week, Oregon Bioscience Association teamed with Catalyze to go ‘Beyond the Bay,’ hosting the Beyond The Bay Pacific NW Networking Reception at the 38th JP Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco.
Hundreds of attendees joined Northwest attending companies in the biotechnology, digital, medical device and pharmaceutical sectors. “It was a very big week for us in the Bay Area with this key opportunity to showcase bio and tech in the Pacific Northwest on a world stage,” said Liisa Bozinovic, Oregon Bio’s Executive Director.
“This was a great opportunity for us, thanks to the broad array of attendees from all sectors including government, startup, investment/VC and vendors,” said Jody McNannay, co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Curadite, a Beaverton-area, medication management startup. “The event was both relevant and cohesive. It offered a chance to extend our reach beyond Oregon – with attendees ranging from Canada and Boston – who were highly engaged and interested in learning more about our company and the Northwest.”
The keynote speaker at the reception, Eric D. Hargan, the national Deputy Secretary for Health and Human Services, gave an overview of HHS’s efforts encouraging innovation. Local med-entrepreneur Ray Constantini of Bright.MD spoke to why his company knows firsthand Portland is a great place to grow a digital health company. Washington state startup KenSci’s Sunny Neogi also shared his entrepreneurial expertise.
John Falconer, vice president of design and development at Summit Development Group, noted, “The partnerships formed are crucial, as is sharing the story how Portland and the Northwest is an emerging market nationally for leading U.S. life science clusters. We’re definitely on par with other emerging top tier life science markets around the country such as Seattle, Houston, Austin and Denver.”
The Oregon Bioscience Incubator sponsored six local startup companies to attend: Bates Medical Systems, Health Technology Innovations, Madorra, Motusi, Rewire Neuroscience and Sparrow Pharmaceuticals.
“These important efforts not only attract investment in the Pacific Northwest, but showcase investors, and future, emerging firms how locating here can lead to lower operational costs; a strong field of executive and technical talent and a trained workforce; and university and hospital research partnerships,” added Bozinovic.
“At Oregon Bio, it’s our job is to accelerate the launch and success of life science industry in Oregon and now, Southwest Washington,” added Bozinovic. “As we endeavor to bring the Pacific Northwest’s bio and medtech sectors to the national and global stage, our next opportunity will be our Pavilion exhibition in play for the BIO convention, set for June 8-11. Again, we’ll join with Washington state-based companies to highlight our region and provide our member companies opportunities to partner and grow.”
Sponsors of the Beyond the Bay Pacific Northwest Reception included Cambia Grove, Washington State Department of Commerce, Make & Scale, Aventurine, Summit Development Group, Oregon State University College of Engineering, Oregon Bioscience Incubator and VectorPoint Ventures.