Over the last few years, our work at EDC has shifted to focus on our full economic footprint across the county. In everything we do, we strive to implement programs, strategies, and services that will help us double our supply of skilled workers, enable our small businesses to create more competitive jobs, and increase the number of thriving households throughout the region. Now more than ever, we know that our work needs to be both meaningful and measurable to meet these goals. And we have little time to waste. Read more from Mark.
By the Numbers
8% San Diego County unemployment rate
26 business assisted in 2020
267 jobs impacted in 2020
2.5% Of reported spend by local anchor institutions can be traced back to San Diego
Every year at EDC, our team spends November and December moving through a structured goal setting process together with our investors, our executive committee, and our board. We work to establish objectives for the year that are responsive to the demands of current economic conditions; that are led by the businesses that create jobs for San Diegans; and that have measurable outcomes that contribute to prosperity and competitiveness across the binational region. Learn more about our 2021 goals. br/
By the Numbers
6.6% San Diego County unemployment rate
365 business assisted in 2020
8.2K jobs impacted in 2020
476 Companies assisted with COVID-19 relief in 2020
This year was unlike anything anyone could have predicted. Our communities grappled with unimaginable loss brought on by COVID-19, a social and racial justice reckoning, an ever-contentious political landscape, and so much more. And yet, here we are—turning the page into the New Year, still with the same problems of 2020, but with greater resilience, forward thinking, and commitment to inclusion.With and through our nearly 200 investors, EDC worked directly with nearly 500 San Diego businesses through crisis and recovery. Learn about this work and more in our Top 20 in 2020, and read on below for our month in review.
By the Numbers
7.7% San Diego County unemployment rate
359 business assisted year-to-date
8K jobs impacted year-to-date
15 Programs identified as Preferred Providers of business talent
Well, we’ve made it to October. It’s hard to believe that this tumultuous, lesson-filled year is nearing its end. While our nation and our community have faced many challenges in 2020, there is still much worth celebrating here in San Diego. This month we celebrate National Manufacturing Day, as well as San Diego Startup Month—two areas of our economy that have demonstrated resiliency in times of crisis. Read on for more.
As I take on the role of board chair for the next two years at San Diego Regional EDC, I am fortunate, blessed, and humbled by the opportunities that life has given me. I also recognize that my story is not the norm for Latino immigrants in this country and that my journey thus far is not particularly common for a city kid from Chicago. I feel both an obligation and responsibility to use this time at EDC wisely, effectively, and purposefully. And as the threats and realities of COVID-19 and racial injustice continue to grip our community and our economy, like many, I feel the urgency and the need to accelerate the recovery that lies in front of us. From the years following the Great Depression to those following the Great Recession, every recovery that the American economy has experienced has increased systemic poverty and widened the inequalities in Latino and African American communities. Too often, in a rush to restore economic normalcy for some, entire segments of our communities have been left further behind and unable to find and maintain their footing on a new and changing economic foundation. Our commitment at EDC is to do everything we can—drawing on the breadth and depth of every partnership and relationship we have— to get this recovery right. Read more.
Blood samples delivered by drone? Medical specimens via drones may soon become a reality thanks to a new partnership between UPS Flight Forward and Matternet, in conjunction with UC San Diego Health.
Medical specimens take flight
Last week, the first medical specimens were delivered by drone as part of a larger effort to integrate drones into San Diego’s airspace as part of the Integration Pilot Program. UC San Diego Health will be utilizing UAS as a means to deliver medical specimens and supplies to expedite health care services. It has become common practice for labs to operate separately from a hospital. This new partnership may mean faster diagnosis, treatment, or even peace of mind.
“Right now, most biological samples must travel between sites by courier car, within designated hours,” said James Killeen, MD, clinical professor of emergency medicine and director of information technology services at UC San Diego School of Medicine in UC San Diego’s announcement. “That leaves the system vulnerable to the vagaries of road congestion, accidents, construction, and more. Travel time can be slow and unpredictable. A drone can fly over such obstacles in a much more direct way, and take just a few minutes to cover the same distance.” If successful, drones may even be used for organ transport in the future.
Why San Diego is creating a drone hub
According to the FAA Aerospace Forecast and Drone Analytics, the global drone industry is projected to be worth $43 billion by 2024. As a region, San Diego has made a name for itself by capitalizing on nascent technologies that turn into major economic engines – think genomics and ICT/satellite technology.
That’s why in 2017, EDC – in collaboration with the City of San Diego – spearheaded San Diego’s application to serve as a site for the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) Integration Pilot Program (IPP). San Diego as one of 10 jurisdictions that received the designation and the densest urban environment selected.
Today, EDC serves a much larger role as the program manager through an agreement with the City of San Diego. In addition to streamlining the process and clearing regulatory hurdles for operators (think companies like Matternet), the IPP also looks to position San Diego as a UAS center of excellence by encouraging the growth of the industry and building homegrown talent.
To achieve these goals, the IPP has four focus areas (International Relations, Environmental Survey, Public Safety, and Package Delivery), and boasts over 20 private, non-profit, government partners.
How the IPP launched SD’s first medical specimen flight
On February 25, the FAA officially approved the UC San Diego Health flight route that enabled Matternet, as the UAS operator, to carry out this mission until April 2023. UC San Diego is the second hospital system in the nation to transport medical specimens via drones.
Phoenix Molecular Designs announces expansion to SD in June 2017
In June 2017, Phoenix Molecular Designs(PMD), a Canadian biotech company working on a breast cancer therapy, announced it was expanding to San Diego during World Trade Center San Diego’s Trade Mission to Vancouver. Over two years later, PMD- which now has an outpost at JLabs – is now one step closer to bringing its life-saving treatment to market. And it’s happening because of PMD’s clinical work in San Diego.
Phoenix Molecular Designs’ therapy is developed to treat triple-negative breast cancer. This aggressive form of cancer is often likely to become metastatic, and has a poorer prognosis than other forms of breast cancer. In 2019, nearly 270,000 individuals will be diagnosed with breast cancer in the US alone. Up to 20 percent of those new cases – over 50,000 – are estimated to be the triple-negative type.
But thanks to PMD, there’s a new form of hope.
The company has officially entered Phase 1/1b clinical trials for PMD-026 with the FDA, meaning they are able to administer the drugs to their first patients.
“Dosing the first patient in this newly initiated clinical trial is a paramount milestone for PhoenixMD,” said Andrew Dorr, M.D., chief medical officer of Phoenix Molecular Designs. “We believe PMD-026 to be a promising new approach to treat advanced breast cancer and we look forward to building upon this momentum in the pursuit of a potential treatment option for individuals living with advanced forms of breast cancer.”
International partnerships take time
When World Trade Center San Diego – EDC’s international affiliate – set its sights on Vancouver in 2017 for its first international trade mission, it was in hopes of spurring international partnerships in the life sciences and clean technologies sectors.
WTCSD first met Dr. Sandra Dunn, CEO of Phoenix Molecular Designs, when the international BIO convention was in town in 2017. After a quick conversation, it was clear that in order to meet their lofty goal of bringing a treatment to market, Phoenix Molecular Designs needed to expand somewhere in the U.S. with a strong biotech sector and access to top-tier clinical talent.
A few weeks later, City of San Diego Mayor Kevin L. Faulconer, World Trade Center San Diego, and a delegation of 20 senior-level San Diego leaders were in PMD’s board room in Richmond – right outside of Vancouver – helping the company plan its expansion.
Today, PMD’s presence has grown to nearly 15 employees in San Diego and with the latest funding round, may see additional growth. And its engaged other companies along the way. PMD has partnered with WuXi STA, another international company with a presence in San Diego, to develop and manufacture PMD-026.
At a time of mounting global uncertainty, it is important that San Diego continues to show up in international markets and forge partnerships. The next life-saving treatment is out there, and if San Diego’s regional track record is any indication, we may play a part in bringing it to the world.
Sysmex Corporation, a global medical device manufacturing company with its HQ in Kobe, Japan, was looking to enlarge their US-based presence.
With San Diego as a target destination for expansion, Sysmex contacted EDC with details on the company’s plans to expand its life science operations by leveraging proprietary technologies to create new testing and diagnostic technologies that help provide optimal healthcare for all. Sysmex distributes and supports automated in vitro diagnostic hematology, coagulation and urinalysis analyzers, reagents and information systems for laboratories and healthcare facilities throughout the Western Hemisphere.
The company was interested in piloting their US presence with a research and development lab staffed with ten initial full-time employees. EDC provided a list of properties using a site selection database that met Sysmex’s requirements for location characteristics. In order to coordinate site logistic tours and provide Sysmex additional market perspectives on the potential locations, EDC leveraged its connections with CBRE’s research team. CBRE was able to conduct a tour with Sysmex on nine different locations across the region.
Sysmex is now in the process of finalizing their internal budget by mid-October, in order to establish their research and development site by December of this year. The Sysmex team is very positive regarding San Diego and establishing a future here.
Serving the defense and transportation industries, Cubic Corporation is a global company with clients on nearly every continent. The company has called Kearny Mesa home for 50 years, currently based in an aging set of buildings that have not kept pace with the company’s. Its facilities were divided onto two major campuses in the Kearny Mesa area, creating a lack of cohesion among its business units.
With competition for tech talent at an all-time high, Cubic’s leadership was concerned its outdated facilities would discourage potential hires. Cubic needed to modernize and redevelop its campus to help attract talent, while also providing adequate facilities for the next 50 years. Despite its long history as a San Diego company, Cubic was experiencing pressure to build its headquarters in a lower-cost state such Tennessee, Alabama, orFlorida, where Cubic had other growing operations. As a result, EDC worked hand-in-hand with Cubic’s team to secure the necessary incentives to keep San Diego a competitive option, despite pressure to relocate its facilities out-of-state.
Utilizing both state and local programs, EDC was able to leverage its expertise in incentives consulting in order to help this 50-year-old staple company stay in California. EDC developed a strategy to capture a number of incentive programs, which offset the cost of rebuilding its headquarters in San Diego. Additionally, EDC worked as an intermediary to both the City and State departments on behalf of cubic to ensure processes were staying on track and that the campus redevelopment was seen as a priority by all parties.
Cubic secured a CalCompetes Tax Credit worth $8.5 million. Locally, Cubic was able to secure expedited processes through the City of San Diego, in addition to a Business Incentive Program and Business Cooperation Program award. In total, the incentives and expedited processes provided gave Cubic the necessary offsets and timeline confidence to commit to redeveloping its Kearny Mesa headquarters, and keeping San Diego as its home for decades to follow.
ABOUT CUBIC CORPORATION: Cubic is an American public corporation providing diversified systems and services to the transportation and defense markets worldwide. Cubic Corporation is the parent company of three major divisions: Cubic Transportation Systems, Cubic Mission Solutions and Cubic Global Defense. cubic.com
MetroConnect company Telaeris is a privately-owned San Diego company that develops RFIDs (Radio Frequency Identification) and contactless smartcards for businesses. RFIDs and its related products are important contemporary solutions for the efficient management of inventory and assets. RFIDs are also important in tracking the flow of people, as it is one of the basic technologies that make a security badge function.
In September of 2018, Telaeris was selected to be one of 20 participating companies in World Trade Center (WTC) San Diego’s MetroConnect export assistance program. The company received a $10K grant, courtesy of JPMorgan Chase, as well as programmatic support in order to access international markets and boost export sales. Programmatic support included educational workshops, marketing and PR support, and access to preferred rates and discounts with airline and industry partners.
At the beginning of the 2018 program, WTC’s team connected Telaeris to MetroConnect sponsor SYSTRAN, to provide complimentary translation services for the nearly 100,000 lines of code the company needed modified. Once the company had taken the SYSTRAN software as far as it could go, Telaeris used its $10k in grant funds to pay for expert human translators in Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, and more, to polish the code to ready it for market.
In April, the company attended a trade mission to the South of France with the Port of San Diego and WTC San Diego. There, the company was able to market its localized product to French electronic tracking company Coppernic. As a result, Telaeris was able to ink a deal and have eight Coppernic employees (six in Europe; two in Africa) trained to sell Telaeris’ enterprise technology, thereby expanding its sales capability to regions where it had never had a presence before. Additionally, this relationship has led to two potential deals (currently in the works) worth $25K each.
“The MetroConnect program, presented by JPMorgan Chase, has been an amazing catalyst to super-charge the way our company approaches international business development. Our company has been around for 14 years, but with the tools and resources provided through MetroConnect, we are now on track to target many large markets that make up the majority of the world that does not speak English. Capitalizing on these opportunities makes us a more resilient and prosperous company back home.”
