San Diego is home to more than 350 precision health companies that hold 3,610 patents, according to a study released by yours truly: San Diego Regional EDC. “San Diego’s Precision Health Ecosystem” explores the impact of the region’s precision health cluster and quantifies the number of firms, venture capital and patents, as well the broader cluster across California.
The web-based study – precisionhealthSD.org – includes a historic timeline, cluster map, local and state overviews, and a series of video testimonials from local business leaders.
Large local companies like Illumina and Thermo Fisher Scientific, startups and small businesses like CureMatch, LunaDNA, and EpicentRX, as well as hospitals and research institutes are helping lead the charge in precision health and enabling people to live longer, healthier lives.
Using a person’s unique genes, medical history, and environment, the field of precision health seeks to customize effective therapies and disease treatment. More than genomics and pharmaceuticals, precision health also encompasses a wide range of related fields that allow for the collection, storage, analysis, and use of health data for more precise diagnosis of individual conditions and risk factors.
“From personalized cancer vaccines to record-breaking DNA sequencing of newborns, San Diego companies and research institutes are revolutionizing healthcare as we know it,” said Kirby Brady, research director, San Diego Regional EDC. “Consistently ranked among the top five cities for startups and life sciences, as well as the #1 region for genomics patents in the U.S., San Diego brings more to the table than its beaches – we are changing lives and curing disease from the offices and labs throughout the region.”
KEY FINDINGS
San Diego precision health companies secured $1.3 billion in venture capital in 2018, to date.
San Diego precision health companies hold 825 registered trademarks, and 3,610 patents.
San Diego is home to more than 350 precision health companies, 80 research institutions, 30 hospitals, and five universities.
Economic impact of precision health in California (2017):
The report was produced by San Diego Regional EDC, and sponsored by Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc., CBRE, Kaiser Permanente, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Scripps Research.
During World Trade Center San Diego’s Trade Mission to Tokyo and Yokohoma, Japan, Scientist.com, the world’s leading marketplace for outsourced scientific services, announced it will expand to Japan, opening an office in Tokyo.
“Scientist.com has recently created enterprise marketplaces for several Japanese pharmaceutical companies,” stated Dan Kagan, PhD, Scientist.com’s Chief Operating Officer. “WTC San Diego’s trade mission will help Scientist.com continue its rapid expansion into the Asian-Pacific region.”
The San Diego-based ecommerce marketplace will open an office at the Nihonbashi Life Sciences building, where UC San Diego and other major life sciences companies also house international offices. Scientist.com has recently seen growth in its Japanese clientele; it currently operates marketplaces for several large Japanese pharmaceutical companies.
Japan is the third largest economy in the world and a hub for scientific research and exploration. It is also a top-five export market for San Diego goods and services.
Scientist.com has more than 70 employees worldwide. In addition to its San Diego headquarters, it also has offices in the UK and Boston. The Japanese expansion announcement comes on the heels of several accolades recognizing Scientist.com’s growth. In August 2018 Scientist.com was ranked #9 on the Inc. 5000 list of fasting-growing privately owned companies in the US.
Scientist.com is joining a San Diego delegation of local politicians, industry executives and academic leaders. The company is also one of twenty San Diego companies awarded a $10,000 grant as part of WTC San Diego’s MetroConnect program, a comprehensive export assistance program designed to help local companies accelerate their global growth.
Today as part of its local expansion, software startup Cloudbeds unveiled its new San Diego headquarters alongside Congressmember Scott Peters and San Diego Regional EDC. Reflective of its company culture and of the region’s innovative technology cluster, the company’s newly expanded office space is vibrant – chock-full of art, a game room, outdoor working space and picnic area, and a 12-foot willow tree and turf in its common area.
Founded in 2012 by native San Diegans and UC San Diego Rady School of Management MBA graduates Adam Harris and Richard Castle, the company creates cloud-based hospitality management software and employs nearly 25 in San Diego, with plans for further growth.
“We’re extremely proud of the team across the world for making our growth so far possible, and we plan to continue in a much bigger way,” said Adam Harris, CEO at Cloudbeds. “We plan to have grown by 50 percent globally over our current size at the end of 2019.”
Some of that growth will be focused in San Diego. Cloudbeds is currently looking to fill technical positions to support the continued development of its hospitality software. Additionally, Cloudbeds was recently selected to take part in MetroConnect 2018, an export assistance program run by World Trade Center San Diego (WTC) – an affiliate of San Diego Regional EDC – and designed to help San Diego companies accelerate their global growth. Over the next year, Cloudbeds will work directly with WTC and EDC to expand into more global markets – specifically targeting India and Southeast Asia. The company currently supports 200 jobs across 28 countries.
“We’re thrilled Cloudbeds is expanding in San Diego. Its new headquarters is truly reflective of the region’s tech ecosystem – creative, innovative and collaborative,” said Nikia Clarke, VP of Economic Development, San Diego Regional EDC. “As part of our MetroConnect program, EDC and WTC San Diego look forward to supporting Cloudbeds’ continued growth here and abroad.”
“Congratulations to Cloudbeds – a product of San Diego innovation that started right here at UCSD’s Rady School of Management. Their new headquarters fits right in with our top technology sector and thriving hospitality sector,” said Congressman Peters. “I’m proud to support growing startups, like Cloudbeds, that are changing the way we approach business solutions and I look forward to celebrating their success.”
Today, the Federal Aviation Administration, City of Chula Vista, City of San Diego, San Diego Regional EDC and Cape announced the launch of a test program to deploy drones for proactive public safety operations by the Chula Vista Police Department. This project has been made possible through the FAA’s Unmanned Aerial Systems Integrated Pilot Program (IPP).
As part of the IPP, drones equipped with Cape Aerial Telepresence software will be deployed to a scene within two minutes from Chula Vista Police Department headquarters, to provide police with video and decision quality data. In true #SDlifechanging fashion, these drones will serve as first responders, assisting in incidents such as life safety, crime in progress, fleeing subjects, fire and more. The drone program is an element of the Chula Vista Smart City Action Plan to implement technology and data tools to enhance city services, advance public safety, promote the efficient use of taxpayer dollars, engage residents, and encourage growth in the local economy. Simulation below:
Since CVPD began operations on October 22, a drone has been deployed 29 times. About 30 percent of those calls were related to some type of disturbance and about 17 percent of the time, drone pilots were able to clear a call without ground units responding (e.g., the subjects were gone), thereby keeping officers free for higher priority calls. The drone also was used to locate a felony domestic violence suspect in a transient camp surrounded by heavy vegetation. The drone pilot was able to safely direct officers to the camp while observing the suspect’s actions until he was arrested. The drone was also successfully used to locate and direct officers to arrest subjects on two other disturbance calls. These are just a few of the early successes of CVPD’s UAS pilot program. Drone pilots and patrol officers recognize the potential for even more public safety benefits as the program evolves.
San Diego’s IPP local program also will include projects like flying medical specimens from UC San Diego for expedited results and cost savings, testing food delivery from restaurants to consumers using Uber, and testing the integration and communication between driverless cars and unmanned aircraft systems.
The City of San Diego’s Homeland Security Department is collaborating with more than 20 regional organizations to implement the IPP. In addition to EDC, partners include: City of Chula Vista , Cape, AirMap, Qualcomm, AT&T, California Governor’s Military Council, California Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GoBiz), Uber, UC San Diego Health, Intel, GE Ventures, and others.
The San Diego regional IPP is one of only 10 agencies nationwide chosen to participate, including the states of Kansas, Virginia, Alaska and North Dakota and the cities of Reno and Memphis. The San Diego region also was selected as one of 10 autonomous vehicle testing sites in the nation in 2017. The designated testing sites form a national community that share information and collaborate with the private sector to advance the safe development of unmanned vehicles.
The federal Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Integration Pilot Program (IPP) is an opportunity for state, local, and tribal governments to partner with private sector entities, such as UAS operators or manufacturers, to accelerate safe UAS integration. The Program is expected to foster a meaningful dialogue on the balance between local and national interests related to UAS integration and provide actionable information to the USDOT and FAA on expanded and universal integration of UAS into the National Airspace System.
Today, WTC San Diego and Congressman Scott Peters visited current MetroConnect company LRAD Corporation to tour its new, expanded facility in Rancho Bernardo. The new space will support LRAD as it doubles its workforce and fulfills an $11 million U.S. Army order for acoustic hailing devices – its largest contract on record.
Another example of an #SDlifechanging company: LRAD creates long range acoustic hailing devices, mass notification, and messaging systems that enable users to clearly communicate warnings and instructions, resolve uncertain situations, and enhance safety.
And LRAD is taking its life-saving technology global. After a competitive process, WTC San Diego recently announced that LRAD is one of 20 local companies participating in our export accelerator program, MetroConnect. Over the next year, WTC will work closely with LRAD to help the company increase its export potential in European markets.
The company has seen extensive growth over the last decade, with a presence in 72 countries. This is a testament to the impact of LRAD’s mass notification technology – which is not only applicable to defense, law enforcement and public safety, homeland and border security agencies, but also helps with critical infrastructure protection, fire rescue, and much more all around the world.
Despite national rhetoric, data shows companies that are global pay higher wages, increase productivity in the domestic market, are less likely to go out of business, and spur more efficient R&D here at home. And now more than ever, it’s important that we step up to support local companies in sharing their life-changing innovation with the rest of the world.
Congratulations to LRAD, not just on its growth here at home, but its success abroad. Here’s to more to come.
Learn from the best, they say. For the third straight year, East County-based guitar manufacturer Taylor Guitars generously played host to WTC San Diego and the 20 companies in this year’s MetroConnect program for a day-long export strategy workshop.
We kicked off the day with a tour of the company’s manufacturing operations, showcasing the craftsmanship that goes into the creation of every Taylor guitar. Then, the MetroConnect cohort was treated to lunch and an information session about global growth, IP protection and even corruption in the international marketplace. Taylor Guitars CFO Barbara Wight provided first-hand insight about how the company selects distributors and deals with IP issues. She described how the company effectively responds to inquiries and IP infringement, and helped the MetroConnect cohort think through how they might mitigate international risks for their companies. Taylor Guitars Director of Finance Bryan Bear then described the company’s schema for prioritizing international markets and choosing an entrance strategy.
These workshops are among several support services provide to local SMEs as part the MetroConnect program.
Who has the best job in America, you ask? According to Glassdoor, data scientists do. And lucky for them, there’s plenty of data science gigs available at tech and life sciences companies in San Diego. With a median base salary of $110K and a 4.25/5 job satisfaction score, this growing profession is giving rise to leaders in the digital age.
It goes without saying that in a technology-driven world, the amount of available data will to continue to grow exponentially. And data scientists are exactly the types of people we’ll need to set up systems to digest and glean insight from all of that information.
Data scientists are deep thinkers, problem solvers, and interpreters, driven by seeing the result of their algorithms in action. And most of all, they are needed by companies across the world; most especially, in San Diego.
If you’re a data scientist interested in upgrading your life by living and working in San Diego, join us October 30 from 9am-12pm PST for a Virtual Career Fair with top employers: FICO, ResMed, Analytics Ventures Lab, and Booz Allen Hamilton.
The web-based fair will give participants (you?) virtual access to recruiters from the companies just mentioned. These San Diego companies span defense, life sciences, and technology industries, providing a deep dive into all that a career in data science has to offer. You can explore company booths and chat with recruiters via instant-message or video call…and you don’t even need to leave your living room!
On October 5, America celebrated Manufacturing Day. This national day of recognition was created in 2012 by the Fabricators and Manufacturers Association to change negative perceptions across the United States regarding the modern manufacturing industry. Through coordinated events, manufacturers connect with consumers, students, job seekers, and media to address growing concerns such as the skilled labor shortage and career opportunities for younger generations.
Here in San Diego, the manufacturing industry employs more than 113,000 people, accounting for 7.7 percent of employment in San Diego. This number is up 3.7 percent from last year, exceeding the national growth of 2.2 percent.* To celebrate this local impact, countywide events were held throughout the first week of October.
October 3: Viasat, Open Source Maker Labs, Hunter Industries, Mira Costa College, and more joined forces at CSU San Marcos to welcome busloads of students and teachers to North County’s manufacturer’s showcase. This event highlighted the manufacturers in North County curating scientific and technological solutions to global challenges.
October 3: San Diego City College’s Center for Applied Competitive Technologies (CACT) hosted its Educational and Resource Expo. This downtown event featured a startup panel, job fair, tours, and a manufacturing expo. CACT provides training that help San Diegans get ahead in the manufacturing industry.
October 4: San Diego Regional EDC hosted a Manufacturing Day Reception in Liberty Station. Ten manufacturers from around the region showcased their work including Taylor Guitars, Chuao Chocolatiers, and Planck Aerosystems. We also heard from Congressman Scott Peters (52nd District) and Congresswoman Susan Davis (53rd District), who discussed trade opportunities for San Diego’s manufacturing industry. We are proud to host the only MFG Day event in the country that celebrates the opportunities afforded by binational manufacturing. For the past three years, Samsung has underwritten EDC’s MFG Day festivities along with sponsorship support from CMTC. We would also like to thank our other sponsors: Solar Turbines, San Diego County Water Authority, and San Diego City College. EDC also partnered with Junior Achievement to organize tours of manufacturing facilities for high schools from Vista all the way to Santee.
Sponsor shout outs:
Located in Chula Vista, Samsung is a digital leader in TV & audio, computing and appliances. Samsung has maintained the number one position in the global television market for 10 consecutive years. The SAMEX plant is the largest maquiladora in Tijuana, manufacturing approximately one million televisions and monitors every month. With the success of its electronics business, Samsung now ranks as a top 10 global brand.
California Manufacturing Technology Consulting (CMTC), is a private nonprofit corporation. In 2016, The U.S. Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology awarded CMTC a five-year agreement to be California’s Manufacturing Extension Partnership Center. This agreement makes CMTC the lead organization for delivering services to small and medium-sized manufacturers with support of partners throughout the state. CMTC helps enhance operational performance, new product development, market expansion, and technology adoption for manufacturers in both urban and rural centers.
We appreciate the support of our investors and partner organizations that help make events like Manufacturing Day possible. If you are interested in getting involved next year, please contact our Investor Relations Coordinator, Taylor Dunne, at td@sandiegobusiness.org.
With and through our investors, EDC works to maximize San Diego’s economic competitiveness. Learn how in our Q3 report, which is segmented by our key teams/initiatives below:
Regional Support
EDC convenes resources and stakeholder groups to help talent and a diversity of companies thrive in the San Diego mega-region.
In order to grow jobs, EDC dispatched the following company support tactics and events in Q3:
Unveiled 15 companies selected to participate in DIV program
Helped AI startup Aira sign deals with San Diego Regional Airport Authority and San Diego Convention Center
Engaged startup community in North County through Startup78
WTC San Diego
As part of EDC, World Trade Center San Diego works to cultivate a pipeline of export-ready firms, maximize FDI opportunities, and grow the region’s global connectivity.
Amid increasing uncertainty over national trade policy, ensuring that local companies get the tools they need to be successful overseas is more important than ever. WTC deployed the following tactics in Q3:
EDC’s marketing efforts serve to elevate the region as a top destination for talent, business, and investment.
As part of the San Diego: Life. Changing. campaign, EDC showcased why San Diego is a hotspot for talent and investment with and through the following in Q3:
This work would not be possible without the investment and support of EDC’s members/partners. Thank you for allowing us to support the businesses that make this region truly #SDlifechanging.
Each year, EDC carefully selects a peer metro for our annual Best Practices Leadership Trip – a chance for EDC and a group of key partners and stakeholders to learn from another region facing challenges similar to our own. The decision to go to Indianapolis this year was not a hard one. We were drawn to Indy not just as a fellow participant in the Brookings Inclusive Economic Development Learning Lab last year, but because of its regional approach to inclusive growth that has catalyzed since. We were further intrigued by Indy’s unique talent attraction and retention programs and its many collaborative efforts across government, business, and philanthropy. Over three days, our group of nearly 30 San Diegans was welcomed by Indy’s civic leaders who highlighted local programs, projects, and initiatives. Ultimately, our goal of the Leadership Trip is to inspire fresh approaches to our own challenges and opportunities at home.
A two-sided economy: The Indy Chamber kicked-off our visit with an overview of the economic disparities facing Indianapolis. Similar to EDC, the Indy Chamber led its region through the Brookings Institution Inclusive Growth Learning Lab designed to help economic development organizations (EDOs) build a data-driven platform that articulates the economic case (and imperative) for inclusion. Since the lab, the Indy Chamber has disseminated the Indy narrative throughout town, with many civic leaders referencing its findings throughout our visit. While Indianapolis bodes well on measures affordability, job growth, and entrepreneurship, it is also the 6th most economically segregated region in the U.S., with limited opportunities for upward mobility for individuals born into poverty. The impacts of automation exacerbate economic segregation and poverty in Indianapolis, which lost more than 20 percent of its manufacturing workforce over the last decade. In facing these realities, civic leaders have enacted new measures to increase job preparedness, homeownership, and overall economic security for Indianapolis residents.
The Cook Medical “unicorn”: In a particularly moving presentation, Pete Yonkman, president of Cook Medical, shared an incredible benefit that his company offers employees who wish to advance their educational goals. With more than 12,000 employees worldwide, Cook is a privately-held medical device manufacturer headquartered in Indiana with facilities in six countries, including K-Tube Technologies in Poway. Through a program called “My Cook Pathway,” Cook eliminated its high school diploma requirement for entry-level manufacturing positions in 2017. High-potential individuals without a high school degree are hired to work at Cook in the mornings before spending the afternoon studying for their GED. During the seven weeks it takes to earn their high school equivalency (HSE), Cook pays employees full-time wages and associated fees. Furthermore, Cook has partnered with the local Ivy Tech Community College to expand the program for employees interested in AA degrees or certificate programs, fronting registration fees and associated expenses and providing guidance on the financial aid process. After overwhelming response from its employees, Cook has since expanded the program even further. Now, Cook employees can get an HSE through a Master’s degree leveraging the My Cook Pathway program. Before introducing this program, fewer than 65 employees took advantage of education reimbursement. Two years later, more than 1,000 employees are enrolled. By leveraging various state and federal funding streams that support employee education, Cook offers this benefit to its employees for less than $2,000 per employee. When Cook leadership eliminated its high school diploma requirement, they decided they wouldn’t sit back and wait for highly educated employees to show up at their door. Now, they are active participants in preparing Indiana’s future workforce, with resumes flooding their doors and employee retention rates on the rise.
Connecting Talent: Through its lauded statewide community college system and multiple universities, Indianapolis is well positioned to produce the workforce its economy needs, but the Midwestern city risks losing talent to the “lure of the coasts.” Jason Kloth, CEO of Ascend Indiana, is front and center on a statewide effort to retain talent by increasing employer access to qualified workers while supporting the residents of Indiana in their pursuit of a meaningful career. After serving in many leadership positions for Teach for America, Kloth led the City of Indianapolis Office of Education Innovation (OEI) as the deputy mayor of education under Mayor Greg Ballard. Kloth is the mastermind behind Ascend, a nonprofit focused on creating a stronger alignment between the supply of skilled talent and demand from employers in Central Indiana. Ascend has raised more than $10 million to support its work. The organization provides strategic consulting services to help high-growth companies identify, evaluate, and secure education partners to deliver a custom talent pipeline, usually in less than a year. In a recent project with medical device giant Roche, Ascend partnered with the University of Indianapolis to address the company’s shortage of technicians fueled by increased retirement turnover. The result was a work-ready pipeline of 25 skilled, entry-level professionals in less than 12 months. Ascend has also created a next-level, cloud-based platform called “the Ascend Network” that matches qualified talent from 14 higher education institutions to positions at more than 70 large companies. The platform has helped place more than 400 individuals in Indiana. Through its experienced team of recruiters and matching algorithms, Ascend ensures high quality candidates and speeds up the hiring process for both individuals and companies. Needless to say, our group was astonished.
Before returning home, many members of our San Diego group continued onto Washington D.C. for a day at the Brookings Institution. The group was welcomed by Amy Liu, vice president and director of the Brookings Metropolitan Program, before Brookings fellows facilitated a series of discussions on how and why other metros are approaching inclusive growth to help us think more broadly about strategies for succeeding in a rapidly-changing economy.
San Diego’s Progress
After spending much of 2017 deepening our understanding of regional challenges facing San Diego, EDC has spent 2018 assembling an employer-led steering committee to build an inclusive growth agenda that benefits more people, companies and communities. Guided by the findings of a recent EDC study, EDC’s Inclusive Growth Steering Committee recently endorsed a regional goal to double the number of skilled workers produced in San Diego County to 20,000 per year by 2030. To support this goal, the committee developed recommendations around transparency, engagement, and investment for employers to adopt and implement within their own organizations. EDC continues to work with the steering committee to set goals and recommendations for employer engagement around our other two pillars of inclusive growth; small business competitiveness and addressing affordability.
Before Indy, we traveled to Nashville and Louisville, smaller regions confronting deeply entrenched histories of racial segregation and poverty. Indianapolis is home to one of the largest endowments in the country and would not be where it is today without the investment of the Lilly family. Each metro is unique in its history, resources, and politics, and will inevitably need to craft an inclusive economic development strategy that works for their community based on their particular circumstance. However, inclusive growth as both an economic and moral imperative is a sentiment that permeates among more and more leaders nationwide.
Regardless of how different our circumstance may be from Nashville, Louisville, or Indianapolis, the authenticity that is threaded throughout our visits each year encourages an honest dialogue among our San Diego delegation, leading to a heightened sense of unity in purpose and mission amongst our investors and newer partners. There is much to be done, but EDC and our stakeholders are committed to this work. It will remain driven by collaboration, coordination, and honesty. EDC’s mission is to maximize the region’s economic prosperity and global competitiveness. To live up to that mission, our economic development strategies must promote growth through inclusion.
Large local companies like Illumina and Thermo Fisher Scientific, startups and small businesses like CureMatch, LunaDNA, and EpicentRX, as well as hospitals and research institutes are helping lead the charge in precision health and enabling people to live longer, healthier lives.
