. .

S.F. Seeking to Grow Mission Bay Biotech Hub

 

San Francisco is taking a page from its own playbook in trying to expand the biotech and life-science hub in Mission Bay southward to the Pier 70 area and eventually the former Hunters Point Naval Shipyard.

Mayor Gavin Newsom is expected to announce today at the opening of Nektar Therapeutics' new 102,000-square-foot Mission Bay headquarters that the city will formalize and expand cooperation with private industry and UCSF to hire a staff person whose sole job is to develop and promote the San Francisco biotech industry.

"We really took a page from the ChinaSF model," said Todd Rufo, business development chief in the mayor's Office of Economic and Workforce Development.  Before the China steps, San Francisco had one Chinese company in sectors such as clean tech, biotech and new media with offices here. The ChinaSF program has recruited or facilitated the expansion of 10 more, bringing more than 120 jobs, according to the mayor's office.

City officials and others hope the new program, BioSF, will generate a similar expansion in biotech and life-science startups and other companies.  Newsom's BioSF plan also includes a formal agreement between the city, QB3 and the San Francisco Center for Economic Development, which represents private industry to advance the biotech sector.