Person to watch
The 25-year Genentech veteran — most recently in charge of clinical operations — after a year on the job is leading early cancer diagnostics company Grail toward a potential $500 million IPO. Grail is also launching a 50,000-person study to see if its technology can detect multiple cancer types earlier, particularly lung cancer.
Technology to watch
AI / ML
From Daphne Koller’s Insitro to Alice Zhang’s Verge Genomics Inc., artificial intelligence and machine learning are moving beyond hype to real-time lab use. The coming year is critical to proving the technology can not only help discover drugs but move compounds effectively and efficiently through clinical trials.
Trends to watch
Big Pharma reshaping Peninsula landscape
Big Pharma is taking a growing footprint on the Peninsula. So, while developers continue to build new biotech labs and offices at a record pace, space is being eaten up quickly by large and maturing companies — and those companies are booking years in advance.
Diving deeper into cancer immunotherapy
Drugs that mark tumors for death and boost the immune system’s reaction work for only a small percentage of cancer patients. But a number of companies are pursuing next-generation drugs to boost response rates and expand into different types of cancer.
Grail’s IPO may jumpstart more offerings
Early cancer detection company Grail, based in Menlo Park, is readying a big initial public offering. The potential $500 million IPO could reset investor interest in biotech after a lackluster fourth quarter of Bay Area IPOs.
Competition for talent
Thanks to a steady flow of venture capital and IPOs, life sciences companies are fighting for workers. But it’s a sellers market, so recruiters say companies need to find new ways to attract and retain employees, especially millennials.
5 Key events from 2018
Gilead’s new CEO
The Foster City-based drug powerhouse, which brought to market life-changing HIV and hepatitis C drugs, named Roche veteran Daniel O’Day as its new CEO and chairman as it pushes deeper into cancer.
Big IPOs — and then unease
Bay Area life sciences companies raised $2 billion through 15 initial public offerings. The biggest IPOs came in October, just before the market turned south.
“Oyster Point Development is committed to working in partnership with South San Francisco to revitalize Oyster Point,” writes Clara Tang, executive vice president, Oyster Point Development.
Kilroy plants flag on Oyster Point
Kilroy Realty Corp. paid $308 million in May for a 40-acre waterfront site at the terminus of Oyster Point Boulevard, targeting as much as 2.5 million square feet of biotech lab and office space. Kilroy bought the site from a company controlled by China’s Greenland USA.
New drugs, new manufacturing
Gene therapies and cell therapies are pushing Bay Area companies to build their own manufacturing sites in the East Bay and Peninsula. Emeryville’s Gritstone Oncology Inc. opened a manufacturing facility in Pleasanton, for example, and gene therapy company Orchard Therapeutics is looking to build out space in Fremont.
Crews work on the first phase of BioMed Realty’s Gateway of Pacific project.
AbbVie’s big lease
Drug maker AbbVie Inc. said in November that it would build out a research center in 479,000 square feet in BioMed Realty’s under-construction Gateway of Pacific in South San Francisco. The company also will roll up recent acquisitions, such as Pharmacyclics and StemCentrx.
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