Two advocacy organizations representing the California biomedical and life science sectors will merge to create a unified voice for the nearly 1,300 companies they represent, the groups announced Monday.
The San Diego-based California Healthcare Institute and the San Francisco-based Bay Area Bioscience Association will merge next year to become the California Biomedical Innovation Alliance. The new organization, expected to be formed by the end of the first quarter of 2015, will represent the state's “entire biomedical ecosystem” under one roof, according to a news release.
Current CHI chairman Rick Winningham, chairman and CEO of San Francisco, Calif.-based Theravance BioPharma, will take the lead as chairman of the new organization, while current BayBio chairman Hal Van Wart, president and CEO of Newark, Calif.-based CymaBay Therapeutics, will become vice chairman.
Sara Radcliffe, currently executive vice president for health at the Biotechnology Industry Organization, a Washington, D.C.-based trade group, will be brought on as the new organization's president and CEO. The alliance will have offices in San Diego, San Francisco and Sacramento, with a satellite office in Washington.
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