This week CBSA President and CEO April Giles and Vice President Jennifer Jones returned from the 2018 BIO International Convention in Boston, Massachusetts. This annual trip is a great opportunity to meet with CBSA member companies, industry partners, and other bioscience supporters. The convention also provides a venue where we can learn directly from industry leaders and share policy lessons, trends and insights.

Highlights from the trip included: 

• On Sunday CBSA participated in the Council of State Bioscience Associations (CSBA) Business meeting. We spent the day learning policy updates and best practices employed in other states. CBSA participated in a panel titled CSBA and BIO: A Successful Advocacy & Digital Media Partnership, re: State Drug Pricing Campaign. The panel gave us an opportunity to share our successful True Transparency digital campaign and the critical partnership with BIO utilizing Facebook ads, grassroots, and grasstops strategies. If you have questions about our True Transparency digital campaign please contact Jennifer Jones.

• We met and congratulated our Colorado BioGenius participant, Isani Singh. Isani is a student at Cherry Creek high school and the project she presented was on Turner Syndrome. The BioGENEius program provides high school students the opportunity to compete and be recognized for outstanding research in biotechnology. We were proud to have Colorado as one of the states represented. Isani is a great example of the drive and innovation in our Colorado STEM students.

• We toured a CBSA member company, Novartis, located in Cambridge, MA. Novartis is a top contributor (ranked #3) to innovation across industries and tops the list of industry – academic collaborations, both of which was evident throughout the tour. We opened the conference on Monday with CBSA reception for our members and partners. We were so proud to release our magazine and make connections with our members and partners in Boston for the conference.

• We released Colorado BioScience Association’s 15th issue of Bioscience Colorado. This annual publication is a celebration of Colorado’s rapidly expanding bioscience industry. Thank you to National Jewish Health who provided magazines to BIO participants at their exhibitor booth!

Finally while in Boston at the BIO International Convention the TEConomy/BIO report, Investment, Innovation and Job Creation in a Growing U.S. Bioscience Industry 2018 was released. The eighth biennial report focuses on the economic progress and footprint of the industry geographically including the performance, positioning and latest trends in the bioscience industry for the nation, states and metropolitan areas.

This year’s study found that that the U.S. bioscience industry has reached $2 trillion in annual economic impact while maintaining accelerated venture capital investment and job growth numbers. Among U.S. technology sectors, the bioscience industry has held a leading position as an economic driver and job generator.

Additionally, it finds U.S. bioscience firms directly employ 1.74 million people, a figure that includes more than 273,000 high-paying jobs created since 2001. Specifically, for Colorado, all five major bioscience industry subsectors in Colorado have increased employment since 2014. $1.2 billion invested has been invested in Colorado bioscience during that same period. The NIH has also steadily increased their grant funding in the state since 2014. More good news for our industry is in the report released at the BIO International Convention. To learn more about Colorado Specific data click here.