Business Of Biotech
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Business Of Biotech
How To Be A Policy Advocate For Biotech With NewYorkBIO's Jennifer Hawks Bland
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On this week's episode of the Business of Biotech, Jennifer Hawks Bland, CEO of NewYorkBIO, shares insights on New York State's life sciences ecosystem while reflecting on her journey from Capitol Hill to biotech advocacy. Her experiences in politics, law, and biopharma government affairs uniquely positions her to navigate complex policy challenges while creating opportunities for biotech upstarts across New York and beyond. Jennifer also highlights key programs, capabilities, and funding on offer to early-stage biotech companies.
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Ben Comer:Welcome back to the Business of Biotech. I'm your host, Ben Comer, Chief Editor at Life Science Leader, and today I'm excited to speak with Jennifer Hawkes Bland, CEO of New YorkBIO, the New York State Trade Organization, and advocate for life sciences companies, universities and research institutions in New York State. Jennifer is an attorney who has worked in government affairs at Merck and GlaxoSmithKline and before she went to law school, she spent some time on the Hill as a legislative assistant to former US Senator Thad Cochran. I'm excited to chat with Jennifer today about what she's hearing from her membership during a time of change in political leadership leadership to find out more about how state-level organizations like New York Bio support life sciences companies and help them grow, and what her priorities are for the second half of 2025. Thanks so much for being here, Jennifer.
Jennifer Hawks Bland:Oh hey, thanks, Ben. I am thrilled to join you today, and just with that intro alone I feel like just one or two pieces of that. We can spend the whole time covering it.
Ben Comer:Yes, yes, you're absolutely right. Well, let's get right back into it. I want to start out with your background experience, as we do here on the business of biotech I mentioned in the intro. You went straight out of undergrad into political work. You worked on the Hill as a legislative assistant to Thad Cochran. I'm curious, you know, if you were planning a career in politics at that time.
Jennifer Hawks Bland:Yeah, you know it was. It was interesting. And I think every kid has one of those moments where they're like this is what I'm going to do, right, like whether it's be an astronaut or a firefighter or whatever, it is right. And I was one of those nerdy kids who went to Washington, right like and toured, and I remember being like walking in the Capitol and thinking this is what I'm going to do, I'm going to work here one day, right, and that was my moment. And so I also was lucky enough in undergrad that I majored in political science.
Jennifer Hawks Bland:I did not change my major, unlike so many of my of my colleagues in undergrad, which meant that my last semester was glorious Tuesday, thursday, classes like nine to noon, but I was able to really focus in political science was what I wanted to do.
Jennifer Hawks Bland:I actually interned for Senator Cochran in his Jackson Mississippi office after my junior year, so between junior and senior year it also happened to be and Senator Cochran he's passed away, but he was a Republican and there also happened to be the Republican convention happening that summer and I also figured out that Senator Cochran needed me as an intern to assist at the convention, which was an amazing way that I got to also partake in something really kind of exciting and fun, a piece of that truly political theater, right, and it only sort of sealed the deal that I wanted to go to Washington after college. And I did that for several years. Yeah, for six years, is that right? Yep, and three of those. Actually, I worked in Senator Cochran's Mississippi office while I was in law school, so I affectionately refer to it as the Thad Cochran Law School Scholarship for Jennifer Hawks at the time, because I would go clerk at firms in the summer and then come back and have my job back in during the school year.
Ben Comer:Oh, excellent. Well, what made you decide to get a law degree? I mean, at that point, were you still on a path to go into politics or had you already decided that? You know, maybe it wasn't for you.
Jennifer Hawks Bland:Yeah, so I love, I love the politics part. I also love the policy part and the advocacy right. So just petitioning the government, like those sorts of things, and I realized that that skill set could really also be honed right with law school. It also taught me to be a better critical thinker. It 100% taught me to be a better writer. It took all the flowery writing that a political science undergrad major may have used and just redlined that down to be more effective and more concise. But it was interesting.
Jennifer Hawks Bland:So my path sort of to the pharma you know, biotech world started when I was placed in my law firm and I was randomly assigned to the pharmaceutical products defense litigation sort of practice group, right as a first year associate. Many times you're, you know, sort of assigned. You have, you know you have certain aptitudes or whatever, and I knew I wanted to try litigation. Hence, right, that's that theme of advocacy Right Running through. And maybe I would have been in construction law and we wouldn't have been having this conversation today, but I wasn't, and so our company is. Our clients at the firm were. In this case we were working with pharmaceutical companies, right therapeutics companies, and in defending them against claims from plaintiffs alleging right that their therapeutics had injured the plaintiffs in the course of their therapeutic treatment.
Ben Comer:Right, and so then you moved over to in-house and worked in government affairs, regulatory kind of roles, first at GSK and then at Merck. I guess how would you describe that experience of working at? You know large pharmaceutical companies GSK and Merck and I'm curious, you know what you might say about, you know, some of the biggest policy or regulatory issues that you had to contend with during that time.
Jennifer Hawks Bland:Yeah. So, like any good story, it's circuitous, right, rarely is anything interesting and totally linear. And as I talked, I talked to a lot of college students, you know, these days, and grad students these days, and I tell them to, you know, be wary of what they think is going to be this very straight, linear path, because that A is usually not the way it happens, but B, if it happens that way, you might be missing out on some other opportunities, right? So there's my, there's my piece of career advice for the students.
Jennifer Hawks Bland:But what happened is I practiced law, then moved back to Washington DC, so second tour right in DC, and worked at the Consumer Healthcare Products Association, which is the national trade association representing over-the-counter medicine makers, of which GSK, sharing Plow, which later became Merck, were members of that trade association. So I was recruited to go in-house at GlaxoSmithKline because they saw my work and I worked with them at the trade association. And so it was interesting for me when I traded in right, I traded in my jury that I was, you know, advocating in front of, on behalf of my clients to members of Congress, members of the state legislature, members of an executive branch right in the state, to talk about the importance of policy issues to, at that point, right, my company. Right because I was representing an individual company. So it really isn't. It wasn't different in a skill set, it was advocacy. My audience was just different.
Ben Comer:Yeah Well, are there any issues that particularly stick out in your memory as either challenging or just interesting to work on, that you had to go out and explain to legislative bodies? I mean some of these, you know. You know these issues are very complicated. They're not understood well by the general public, including many members of Congress. Well, what's what stuck out? You know from your time of having to kind of educate and advocate for Merck and GSK.
Jennifer Hawks Bland:Yeah, I mean, how long do we have, Ben? The list is lengthy, but I will tell you. I'll tell you a couple of scenarios. One is, and this is one of my favorite stories. So I am originally from Mississippi.
Jennifer Hawks Bland:For those of you who might have known Thad Cochran, you would know that he is a Mississippi senator that we talked about earlier, and I was working on patent reform right for GSK along with colleagues, and we were looking, we were trying to create a dear colleague letter, which meant a letter right for some members of Congress to the rest of Congress.
Jennifer Hawks Bland:They were writing their colleagues to talk about the importance of an issue In this case it was patent reform and we needed to craft a letter that had patent holding signatories from every state represented, right, so you had all the states represented and obviously there are some states where there aren't pharma companies that exist there that would have had, you know, those types of patents.
Jennifer Hawks Bland:And, however, in Mississippi, one thing that is very important in the state is agriculture, and through my work, I did ag work when I worked for Senator Cochran first, and you can take what is it, you can take the girl out of the farm, but you can't, right, and so I knew someone that developed seeds and so right, like to plant in the ground and new strains and new, and they held patents that way. So my my, to take it back, I was like you, never underestimate the work you do along the way and the impact that it can have later in your career, right, and so that was a good example of impact that it can have later in your career, right, and so that was a good example of something that you would have never thought would have ever sort of rolled back around.
Jennifer Hawks Bland:And yet pharma companies and seed companies value the IP creates a lot of the value for the therapeutic for that seed in this case, and so we were able to sort of combine forces and really work together across industries to have an impact ultimately on patients.
Ben Comer:And this was I'm thinking this was probably after Ted Kennedy led the effort to get that. You know, the 12 years of exclusivity for biologics that had already been passed at that time.
Jennifer Hawks Bland:Yes.
Ben Comer:Not that that has to do with seeds, but I'm just trying to put it into the timeline here.
Jennifer Hawks Bland:Exactly Right, yes, and then another really kind of interesting thing we worked on at the federal level was it's called track and trace right, Colloquially right.
Jennifer Hawks Bland:So serialization right of therapeutics as they work their way through the supply chain, right of therapeutics as they work their way through the right through the supply chain, and what we found ourselves in a position where you had a number of states California right, sort of on the leading edge of this that were enacting differing requirements for tracking and tracing lots of therapeutics as they went through, right, the distribution process, and so we really needed to craft federal legislation, and some of your audience might be surprised, some will not be surprised that it is an incredibly large lift to start from scratch and ask Congress to pass something novel and new that doesn't exist, to create a framework, and so that took a number of years and it took an incredible cross section of industry the supply chain right, Like all of the, all of the companies that work in a supply chain, to get a therapeutic from where the pharma company produces it to where it is fulfilled in your local pharmacy, Right and so, and so that was something that was incredibly rewarding.
Jennifer Hawks Bland:It took a long time, but just working together across sort of so many different entities, really shows you the power that our industry can have when it is when everyone is sort of rowing in the same direction in the same direction.
Ben Comer:Yeah, I mean, I got to. It's got to be pretty satisfying to start out from, you know, an educational standpoint of like what, what even is this issue all the way through to getting you know a new policy you know enacted. I'm sure that that's, that's a satisfying job to be in.
Jennifer Hawks Bland:And and and. Some days it's more satisfying. It doesn't always work out that way, and some days it's more sad. It doesn't always work out that way.
Ben Comer:Right, let's talk about New York Bio. You have large pharma corporate members, and so let me, before I go into my little spiel about what New York Bio is, which I should probably have you do I did have a question. I was just sort of flipping through the membership files and I noticed some company names that I would kind of consider to be California companies, and they're like Amgen or Genentech that are members of New York Bio. Your membership also includes, of course, startups, smaller companies, universities and researchers, but I guess is it sort of open to all comers or, if you have an affiliate in New York, is that, is that how it works?
Jennifer Hawks Bland:No, so it's. It's really open to all comers, right, if your company is interested and in it's either an R&D company, it may be a patient advocacy organization right, it could be an academic medical institution. And if you either have a presence in New York or you're interested in work that's going on in New York, whether and one thing that we see with a lot of very early stage companies, especially post-COVID, is they will have employees, even small companies maybe that have 10 or 20 people that work there. They'll be scattered right, because a lot of what they do they can do virtually right, obviously, lab work is different, and so maybe someone is in New York, maybe someone's in Ohio, maybe someone's in Michigan or California. And so if it makes sense for those companies to join a trade association in their different places, right, because of the networking and the opportunities that that provides.
Jennifer Hawks Bland:So we have a mix and you're right, I think one of our member companies, which is a biotech company based in California, new York, bio, was the first non-California trade association right that they joined because they were interested in the advocacy work that we do in Albany with the state legislature and the governor's office. Right, that was a really important piece for them, because part of access for patients depends on, you know, medicaid coverage and other right, other policy choices that the state government makes as far as access for patients. So there's a lot of there's a lot of intersection, no matter where you're based. If you have patients in New York, then it can be impactful, and my apologies, because I am sitting in New York City right now and it sounds like the fire trucks are right behind me.
Ben Comer:Hey, that's part of the city, that's no problem, no worries, I'm not even hearing it on my end. I was just thinking about, you know, companies that might be partnered or collaborating with the university or have partners that are in New York, not to mention even remote employees that live there. So that makes sense. I want to ask next about smaller and earlier stage organizations that you're working with, and my question is how and I guess I'm putting myself in the shoes of you know I'm giving myself a promotion, I'm putting myself in the shoes of a CEO at a startup or some other member of the leadership team.
Ben Comer:In early stage biotech, there's a huge focus on asset development, progressing, a candidate getting to the next milestone or catalyst, getting the data in. You know, making sure every, all the T's are crossed and I's are dotted it. I imagine that, uh, government policy advocacy may end up falling kind of down the list, at least at first, uh, until there's an issue you know that's directly affecting your company. But how do you you know what? What would you say to smaller, either startups or early stage organizations about how they should start thinking about government affairs and advocacy and how they can make their voices heard?
Jennifer Hawks Bland:Yeah, and I will say even a step back, further than that. Right, they're worried about the valley of death, their run rate, right, all of the things.
Ben Comer:Yeah, absolutely Right, all of the things.
Jennifer Hawks Bland:Yeah, absolutely that's starting up a new company, not to mention one that you know has a nine and ten chance of of not surviving or getting a therapeutic to the market. They don't even know, right, they don't know that they need to even worry about it. And so if they happen on New York bio through, whether it's through our network here which is usually right so it's the convenings that we do in New York across the state or whether it's our LinkedIn presence or whatever they realize they're like, oh OK, this organization is here. So one thing we talk to potential new members about is the advocacy piece, because, at the end of the day, they are less likely to get funded to do what they want to do right, which is to bring a therapeutic, a device, you know, a digital opportunity right to patients if there is not a regulatory pathway to approval and reimbursement, and those are almost always policy choices. They are policy choices in the public sector, whether it's Medicare, medicaid, right, or they are policy choices right in the private sector through through private insurance and coverage. But there's often a lot of overlap right in those things, in the way therapeutics are treated.
Jennifer Hawks Bland:Talk to them about what we're doing on their behalf and on all of our members' behalf, right, and we have a government affairs committee of our members and it is primarily staffed by companies with government affairs professionals, but we do have some of our members that join that are interested, and so maybe they're personally interested and then I'll take member companies to Washington right a couple of times a year at least. It seems to be more important and top of mind these days to talk about Washington, but having the ability for someone, a founder, particularly right who is building a business it happens to be a biotech or a therapeutics company or a digital device company but having them talk about hiring people, building a business, growing the payroll, in New York is really impactful. And I talked to them about telling their story to policymakers, because that ultimately moves the needle.
Ben Comer:Yeah, yeah, right. I mean that makes a lot of sense, and I'm just thinking too about the amount of news churn that's happening right now and sometimes even for me, who's someone who reads the news every day, I can't always make heads or tails of what is being proposed versus what's been enacted. Do you get questions from your early stage members who may not have a government affairs position at the company just saying, hey, I don't know what to make of this. Can you explain this to me or help me make my voice heard if it's an issue that I need to speak on? I mean, do you have a lot of calls like that?
Jennifer Hawks Bland:We do. We have some calls like that and then we provide sort of like a monthly member-only briefing right, which covers a lot more of the advocacy work we do and that will go out to all of our member companies, and so that's helpful, right, because it sort of lays out sort of what we've been working on if the legislature the New York legislature is in session, like sort of what we've been working on in Albany, and then obviously, what we're working on at the federal level, and so that's helpful. But that does lead to some good conversations, right. And then we're always looking for people who want to express, right, their concerns, their support, right, because it's not only concerns, although my favorite thing and for those of you who have known me a while, I've said this over and over again usually when we're dealing with a sort of a thorny or complex policy issue, you know our side, the pharma, biotech, you know sort of side has a white paper and the opponents usually have a bumper sticker and so and look, I mean I'm a lawyer by training, you think I would be succinct, training, you'd think I would be succinct.
Jennifer Hawks Bland:Our scientists write white papers, they do research, right, they think really big picture things and they really are looking for ways to sort of move the needle right for humankind right and for the health of the world, and it doesn't lend itself to a bumper sticker type advocacy. So part of the job of a trade association is to try and take those really sort of deep thoughts and those learnings and help translate that into layman's terms, if you will right, so policymakers can understand the real impact on patients, on economic development, right On health as a whole. So that's one of the roles that trade associations, and in this case New York Bio in particular, can play.
Ben Comer:Right, that's one of the roles. What would you say are, I guess, your primary objectives or mission at New York Bio? Is it advocacy in terms of policy and advocating for the policy that your members want? Is that number one? Or how would you, I guess, characterize the overall mission?
Jennifer Hawks Bland:Yeah. So it's a great question and it really depends on where you sit. So if you are a therapeutics company or a patient advocacy group, then we're going to really probably work really closely right on the advocacy issues. We also we do a patient engagement summit every year, right, so we bring in hundreds of patient engagement patient research foundations along, matching them with pharma biotech executives and have, you know, conversations about the work we can do together. We also, then, do a lot of convening.
Jennifer Hawks Bland:So if you're an early stage founder CEO and it's important that you network with other similarly situated founders, you want to find your community, and part of your community is wherever you sit, whether we're hosting something in New York City or on Long Island or in Rochester or Buffalo or Albany right, we do all of those things. It's about creating opportunities for our members in a whole bunch of ways. So the convening is one right. So networking education we do a lot of. Our networking events also include, let's say, panel discussions or fireside chats, topics that are really hot and top of mind. Now, you were talking about reading the news every day. Right, it's, whether it's in, you know, different national publications or trade publications right, it's a really important way we gather that. Yeah, so it's. It depends on where you sit. Our goal is to provide the most value across the broadest group of our members at any given time.
Ben Comer:Are you also you know to your point about convening? Are you also sourcing things for people like you know? I wonder if you're getting members who might say you know I really need to find you know a small manufacturer for you know my IND submission, or you know I really am looking for you know a CEO who has successfully, you know, received approval, commercialized a couple of products to advise us. I mean, are you able to kind of create those linkages between member works?
Jennifer Hawks Bland:Yeah, we do a lot of matchmaking right.
Jennifer Hawks Bland:For lack of a better term among our members, among our sponsors, right, and the programs we do. You know we also host. I've really leaned in right to sort of New York as a finance hub, and so New York Bio I mean no one else offers, right, the access, the exposure to the financial, certainly to the financial markets, but really to the financial infrastructure, I would argue, of the world, right. Then you have a New York, and so New York Bio has a whole series of finance-focused events throughout the year in two weeks why we chose the week after Bio in Boston, I'm not sure but in a couple of weeks we will host the New York Bio Finance Summit, and so that's going to be a good opportunity to really have some deep conversations. The audience is going to be investors, early stage companies, early stage CEOs, so they can make those connections as well as learn from some experts in the field right now about topics that are, you know, that are very top of mind for everybody.
Ben Comer:Yeah, and you know your point on funding is, it is well taken, a critical aspect, particularly of a startup or early stage biotech. You know building that runway to progressing your product and I suspect you that you might be a little biased on the answer to this question, but I'm wondering what you would say about, you know, do you think that being based in New York, for all the reasons that you just gave, gives you an edge in terms of receiving funding? Or, you know, are other, are you so connected, kind of nationally, that other companies that you know, if they have a, you know great compelling science and you know, if they have a, you know great compelling science and you know an interesting offering, that you know that you can help out others as well. Or I mean, would you? I guess the root of my question, jennifer, is if you're you know about to found a biotech and you're looking around at places you know to land, do you go to New York State because you feel like you might have a better opportunity for getting some investment versus other states?
Jennifer Hawks Bland:Well, ben, that seems like a layup. Here's what I think. I think the old adage is true If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere, right? So I think New York is an epicenter, but what I really think is investment will follow. Good science, right, and good science exists across the US. So it would be foolhardy of me to say that, yes, you need to be here, you don't? Look, we have so many great things to offer in New York. Of course, I think companies should start here and grow here.
Jennifer Hawks Bland:However, we work with companies really across the US and across the globe, right when you think about New York. Also, you know, another thing that we haven't even touched on is right, we have the UN here. We have, you know, countries have their offices, certainly for the UN, but many have consular offices right, which is, their economic offices right abroad, and so we work with a lot of foreign entities as they think about bringing their life science companies to find investment in the US. And, likewise, when we think about, okay, opening up other markets outside the USS for therapeutic companies, what are the countries that we're going to go to? What relationships can we build and do we have? And that helps our member companies right when they're looking to expand XUS in different markets.
Ben Comer:Yeah, well, I completely buy into the idea of if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere. It's what I told myself when I moved to New York City with no prospects, right out of school trying to become a writer, so that makes sense for me. I wanted to ask New York is in the midst of a mayoral election right now, but that aside, by the time this episode comes out, I think the election will probably have been announced, so I won't ask you to make any. Yeah, I won't ask you about who's going to win or who you want to work with, but I am curious about how important you know the office of the governor or the mayor of a city like New York is in terms of the work that you're doing.
Jennifer Hawks Bland:Yeah, look anytime like when you're building an ecosystem really of anything, right. But in this case we're talking about life sciences. It takes a mini year investment in public private dollars, right, I mean you have to have everyone you know sort of in the boat rowing in the same direction right to be successful. And in this case we've seen the governor's office, and certainly right now you know, sort of in the boat rowing in the same direction right to be successful. And in this case we've seen the governor's office and certainly right now you know Governor Hochul announced last fall the New York Biogenesis Park. Right, that's going to be out on Long Island. I think that's like about a $430 million investment in a cell and gene therapy hub. That follows on the heels of an announcement at Roswell Park in Buffalo that's also going to be a cell and gene. That was the first cell and gene therapy hub and then the one in Nassau County is going to be coming out online in the next several years.
Jennifer Hawks Bland:So you have the state making significant investments, you have New York City state making significant investments. You have New York City In this case. We are blessed in New York that we have a very robust state economic development agency and a city economic development agency right and they work hand in hand to recruit, attract, maintain businesses right in New York. And life sciences has been a really key, important part of that. And New York City Economic Development Agency has been a really key part of developing the New York City economic development of life sciences and that's been in real estate, that's been in direct investment. You know New York Bio is working right now on building a resource hub. It's giving you a sneak peek of something that is still in somewhat stealth mode. So we're going to be coming out with a resource hub for people from I mean, for all over the world. It'll be website-based but it'll be gathering information that everyone needs on our life sciences community all in one spot. So stay tuned, there'll be more to come on that.
Ben Comer:Oh, interesting. Well, that include things like you know the cost of lab space and availability of different kinds of you know manufacturing capability, that sort of thing.
Jennifer Hawks Bland:It'll have facilities, it'll have programs, it'll have funding, it'll have events, it'll have jobs. Yeah, so news reports, right. Yeah, so it's going to be a comprehensive resource hub that aims to connect the communities and the individuals with both right, like what people are looking for when they're coming into New York, and then, for those people who are here and doing business in sort of the biotech scene, what will enhance their ability to do it faster, do it better, right and network better so that they can bring their cures and treatments to patients even faster and more efficiently.
Ben Comer:Yeah, on New York City, there's a lot to recommend it. I mean, I know from living there for almost 10 years that it's a very tight knit ecosystem for biopharma. You have obviously large companies based in the city as well as really interesting new and innovative biotechs. But my question is, you know, is it affordable right now? If you're, you know, let's say, a scientist-led biotech startup, you have some intellectual properties really interesting. You want to turn it into a product. Is it feasible, you know, to open up an office with some employees and do your work in the city? And if it isn't, you know what are some of your other favorite? I mean, I know I'm going on here, but Regeneron, for example, has been an extremely successful company based in Tarrytown, just a short ride, you know, on the train from New York City. But do you have a sense of, I guess, the affordability question? For you know the example that I gave on a biotech startup that maybe wants to be in the city but is concerned about the financial aspect.
Jennifer Hawks Bland:Yeah, that's a great question and my answer six years ago would have been very different, right? So we have a fantastic array of early stage space, right, we have a number of incubators. We have accelerator programs, right, that may be virtual or somewhat in-person and virtual, and then we have a lot of space here and incubator spaces for early stage companies and those are in shared. You know they either have shared lab space or you know space where you can rent a bench and then you have an office, right. So we have all different iterations.
Jennifer Hawks Bland:And the beautiful thing about New York and when people ask me about other, you know New York compared to insert, you know insert name of other biotech, you know hub I say that we also are. It's different, right, new York always does its own thing, and in biotech and how we're growing is no different. And so you may be in, let's say, you're spinning your discovery out of Columbia, right? So you're up in, right, up on the, in the Northwest part of Manhattan, or you're in Harlem and there are, there are incubators there, right, and there are space. There's Harlem Biospace, there are some new buildings that have come online, and then, if you are on the west side, right near the Stem Cell Foundation, like there is space that has been built out there. If you are on the east side, right in the academic centers near Rockefeller University, rockefeller has a new incubator that's on campus Ford Incubator Center. And then, of course, alexandria really led the way when they built. They have two towers right and they have startup space as well as build out space, then full space for larger companies, down to where New York Bio is located, at BioLabs at NYU Langone, which is we are down in Soho I like to say Soho, but really it's Hudson Square, and so we're right south of Houston and so it really is all. And then Long Island City has InnoLabs and Hatch, and so it really is across the city, if you're just talking about New York City. So it provides opportunities for proximity to academic centers, particularly if your founder is still has one foot in academia Right, which is often the case Right when they're spending out in founding.
Jennifer Hawks Bland:And then you have access to sort of the ease of public transportation. And then you talk about Reg, sort of the ease of, you know, public transportation. And then you talk about Regeneron in Westchester. Westchester has a lot of opportunities and they have space. You know that is coming online, and so I think that those are great.
Jennifer Hawks Bland:I live in Westchester right, so I take the train in in the morning and it's an easy commute. A reverse commute is easy too. So I think we have a lot of availability and opportunities for individuals that want to found and grow companies here. So I think six years ago I would have said, oh you know, we're getting there, these projects are supposed to come online. And then you have other investment firms, like Deerfield, who has built out space that includes the Deerfield offices, but also the Cure, which they have an incubator space, and they have an event space. And New York Bio will be holding our innovation summit on September 30th at the Cure right. They're one of our members and partners, deerfield is, and so it's really fun and interesting to go all across the city I mean the state as well, but you would ask about the city to see the different areas that are growing and how they're growing and how New York bio member companies and New York bio activities fit into all of those different spaces.
Ben Comer:What about other parts of the state that are exciting or interesting to you? There are clearly, you know, excellent universities in places like Buffalo and Rochester. There's activity in Albany, but are there other? And maybe I just named them, but what are the? What are the places you know, that that you're excited about, or that you know strike you, as you know, growing into an impressive biotech ecosystem?
Jennifer Hawks Bland:Yeah, absolutely, it really is interesting. And you know, in large part and this is not, I mean, new York is not dissimilar right from other states. When we talk about this early stage ecosystem of any insert, you know, type of industry growing up out of academia, right, that's often right, you have those. You know students, PhD students, in our case right are often interested in, in being entrepreneurial and right and sort of building a business, and so we see it from Stony Brook right out on Long Island. Think about Northwell Health, right, which is the largest employer in New York. Right, and that is, you know, also on Long Island, is where they're headquartered. That's where the Biogenesis Park is going to go, sort of right next door, right to the facilities.
Jennifer Hawks Bland:Yeah, and then you mentioned Rochester, buffalo, albany. Certainly the Capital Region has some really interesting opportunities there. You know, regeneron at Rensselaer has a pretty large facility in the capital region, right across the river from Albany, as well as Taconic, another of our member companies, and so you see the work they're doing there. The Albany College of Sciences they've built out some training space for students that want to work in biotech, pharma, but may not want to do the whole PhD route. So we need all levels right of the workforce, and so they've been doing some really good work there. And then when you look at academic institutions that are world class in Rochester and in Buffalo and their early stage companies that they're doing, you know, empire Discovery Institute is based in Rochester but it's a combination of the partnership between the University of Rochester, the University at Buffalo and Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center right also at Buffalo, and so they're looking at discoveries that are coming out of those three institutions and Ron Newbold runs that and does a fantastic job of really identifying right potential wins for those three institutions as they collaborate.
Jennifer Hawks Bland:And then we are doing, you know, one thing that New York Bio does. We talked about a lot of the different things. One of the things we do is we have a fellows program for early stage companies. Very specifically, early stage companies raised less less than 7.5 million to be eligible to participate, and one of the programmatic pieces we do we provide opportunities for them to pitch, receive feedback on their pitches, and we do it in different locations across the state.
Jennifer Hawks Bland:July 15th we will be in Rochester for a pitch day and they'll have a series of judges that will right, that will look at the pitches, give them feedback. But even before that, we pair them with mentors and they work on their pitches with professionals in a nonjudgmental setting, right to help them be better. Refine the pitch, talk about you know who the audience is and what they want to get out of it, before they pitch in front of a broader audience. And those really I mean there's not a ton of prize money attached to it, right, it's other opportunities to go to have access to things, but it's been really good right for our companies.
Ben Comer:Yeah, I mean that sounds like an excellent program and you mentioned that Deerfield is a member company. Do you have other banks or investment groups that are part of your membership and are people actually pitching to those groups or how are they involved in your membership?
Jennifer Hawks Bland:Yeah, we do.
Jennifer Hawks Bland:We work closely with a number of investors. You know Aisling is another one of our members and I have actually a board member from Aisling and a board member from Deerfield right that sit on the New York Bio board. We're I'm grateful to have a very good cross section. I have 30 board members on the New York Bio board and so our my goal, as we look at the board sort of composition, is to really create right a board that is reflective of the ecosystem and so it has ones for everybody. But we also work closely with a number of investors sort of throughout the year and the goal of the mini pitch days is less about them, you know, closing a deal right at that particular pitch, and more about the ability to improve their pitch and then build relationships. So we will have investors that come particularly for their networking reception part. They're not there to so much judge the pitch but they do get exposure and then they get the chance to meet and talk to the founders right in a networking setting which has proven right beneficial for everybody.
Ben Comer:Yeah, absolutely yeah, I'm thinking about your membership for everybody. Yeah, absolutely yeah, I'm thinking about your membership. What would you say are, I guess, some of the biggest needs that they have right now, and I guess I'm wondering if they're the same kind of macroeconomic funding issue needs that the entire industry is up against right now, or if there are other things that are maybe unique to your member groups in New York.
Jennifer Hawks Bland:Look, I would love to sit here and tell you that there was some weird niche thing that only New York bio could fill. But I mean, but the reality is, if you were talking about financial conditions, right, by and large they are driven by the science. How fast you're advancing the science? What is your next inflection point? Right, and that is only done when you have funding to do the experiments and to go through your process.
Jennifer Hawks Bland:And I will tell you that, by and large, macroeconomic conditions in the industry are impacting everybody, right, and you see that with the public markets. You see that with valuations, right for private companies, and whether they're raising money, they're not raising money necessarily at the same valuation that they were right in 2020 or 2020. So you can't discount sort of the macroeconomic conditions. With that said, I think what New York Bio has done and what our member companies that are successful have done is really focus on what they can control, where they can get to next. You have to tune out, right, some of the noise, whether it's the noise from Washington, whether it's noise from the markets, right, whatever that is and focus on what you can control, where you can get to next to make advances along your path.
Ben Comer:Right right, there's been a big push at the national level to bring manufacturing back to the US. I mean, I think that's a large part of the strategy with tariffs and I'm wondering if you have sensed or noticed new manufacturing coming into the state or people asking questions about that, whether it's companies wanting to build their own manufacturing or CDMOs, you know, wanting to build a new factory in the state. Are you seeing that happen at all?
Jennifer Hawks Bland:Yeah, we definitely are. We're seeing, and I'm certainly seeing Empire State Development right, which is the state economic development agency, also right being super focused on if a company has made an announcement right that they are going. If it's a domestic company, they're going to own shore, or if it's a, you know, international company that says they're going to invest in manufacturing capabilities Like they, as do I would like for them to locate here. Of course, and look, it's a business decision and the best case we make is just talking about all of the things right that New York has to offer. And for us, for New York Bio, it's how we can help connect the dots right. If you put a facility here and if you build a facility in New York State, then we will have a role in helping you fold into the community. Make sure you're right, having the right people. We can help with making those connections right, making it more seamless for your company as you build out a business here.
Jennifer Hawks Bland:Look, I mean we had to really look at the supply chain. After COVID, I think we saw the vulnerabilities right with the supply chain. I also think that you know the pharmaceutical market, both for finished therapeutics, active pharmaceutical ingredients right, it is a global supply chain and it has grown over. I mean, it has taken decades to make it into a global supply chain and so, as they say, some of those decisions are way above my pay grade. But I think companies are trying to be thoughtful and understand. At the end of the day, where can we address vulnerabilities in the supply chain while maintaining their ability to reach patients worldwide? Still, we can't discount the need to make sure patients are taken care of wherever they exist in the globe in the globe.
Ben Comer:Are you hearing and maybe just anecdotally or maybe not, but are you hearing about any impacts to your members in response to or because of, changes at the NIH in terms of funding cuts? I'm just curious, you know, if any of that is kind of making it back to you at this point.
Jennifer Hawks Bland:Yes, I mean anecdotally. Yes, we have heard concerns about whether NIH grants are being paid or being paid in a timely manner. Right, I do think, and I've heard recently, is that as things settle out a little bit meaning there's not quite so much flux right in news coming out of NIH or FDA, right, like I think, as things hit more steady state, companies are able to navigate a little better. You know, you had a lot of personnel turnover and maybe turmoil is the right word right sort of earlier in the year, and I think as that quiets down through various channels, then we're seeing companies being able to get back right a little bit more to a steady state. You know, and NIH, new York Bio and several of our colleague trade associations across the country, new York Bio convened on everyone's behalf a webinar recently on NIH funding opportunities.
Jennifer Hawks Bland:There is a funding opportunity. I think the deadline is actually June 10th so it will have passed by the time this comes out. But my point in bringing that up is there are opportunities for funding through NIH, through their grant programs. It's not like everything just shut down right, and trade associations can help companies find the path to get right. So find the right person to talk, to find a program officer to have that conversation with, to try and figure out if it's SBIR funding or STTR right for the academic standpoint. Like what is that? How can I find the right avenue to not only figure out if there's funding, but to then ask the right questions. And so that's part of our job is to make sure you can be connected.
Ben Comer:Yeah, well, I'm glad you mentioned the other state, kind of state level organizations like yours I was curious about how you work with them. And if it's kind of state level organizations like yours, I was curious about how you work with them and if it's kind of a formalized thing or if it's sort of ad hoc based on, you know, whatever a need is. I mean, I don't think every state has, you know, a trade organization specifically focused on on biopharma. Obviously a number of them do. Some are, you know, bigger than others and smaller than others, but I.
Jennifer Hawks Bland:how would you describe that relationship between?
Jennifer Hawks Bland:New York Bio and other state level organizations. It's totally valid. So we have there is a, the Council of State Biotech Associations, csba, right, and it is a federation of the different state biotech associations, of which I think that there are 49 state biotech. Some states have multiples Right. So California has multiple associations, texas has several associations, and so what we do is and then there is a board of directors for the Council of State Biotech Associations.
Jennifer Hawks Bland:I sit on that board of directors and so I get to work in that formalized setting with my colleagues from across the country, and then I work in an ad hoc. You know, I work very closely with my all of my colleagues in the region, right From Maine, massachusetts, rhode Island, connecticut, new Jersey, pennsylvania, right, and the list goes on Delaware, the list goes on. Really, the entire region really works closely together and we look for ways to support each other and our member companies, which is fantastic Because, you know, often we have, you know, there may be New Yorkers that work in Connecticut or Boston, and certainly there are people that live in New York and work in New Jersey and vice versa, right. So we're always looking for ways to be supportive and collaborate and we do a pretty good job, I think of finding ways to collaborate, certainly at the advocacy level.
Ben Comer:Yeah, what are your top priorities, jennifer, for, I guess, the second half of 2025 at New York, bio and you know anything else that's kind of a top of mind or top priority for you. You know, forward looking, thinking about, you know what's coming in the next year.
Jennifer Hawks Bland:Yeah, Ben, very good question. I like the forward leaning question. Look, I think for me, for New York Bio, it is about making sure our members understand we are staying the course advocating on their behalf. We tune out the noise when it's noise, we pay attention when it's going to be substantive and we engage. Whether it is at the federal level on policy, whether it is funding mechanisms right that Congress is considering, or the administration is considering, whether it's actual policies that impact patient access in Albany right, or the governor is considering whether to veto or sign legislation, New York Bio will be there and be engaged.
Jennifer Hawks Bland:If it is creating opportunities for networking and connection building and ecosystem enhancement, New York Bio is there. We are the convener, we are the assistant, we are supporting others that are convening groups right across the state, and so for me it's exciting to see everything that is we have coming up in the second half of the year. Bio, our website is easy to find. Check it out. You can see all of those things where you two individually can engage and look. My goal is to enhance the ecosystem and, at the end of the day, my ultimate goal is to make sure more patients have better access to therapeutics that are created here in the US, and whatever little part I can do and New York Bio does, for that is going to be a win.
Ben Comer:Are there any specific policies, either at the state level or federal level, that you're particularly focused on right now?
Jennifer Hawks Bland:Yeah, I mean we're always interested in funding levels, right for our early stage research grants, whether that's, you know, the SBIR program, right? The Small Business Innovation Research Grant program at the federal level is up for reauthorization this year, and so that's important. So you have two things there, right? You have appropriations, so you have the money that is spent, and then you have the authorizing legislation, meaning the program's existence. You have to have both. You have to have a program that is put into existence and then reauthorized every time it expires, and then you have to have the funds that are appropriated and therefore then dispersed to those companies. So you know we're going to be working on that at the federal level and then at the state level.
Jennifer Hawks Bland:New York State is a quasi part-time legislature, right?
Jennifer Hawks Bland:They will finish the majority of the work on their legislative session in mid-June and then we suspect this year that they may be back. Depending on what happens with funding at the federal level, new York may have to come back for a special session in the fall to adjust their budget because they make certain assumptions about how much federal funding will flow to the state, and if those assumptions prove to be incorrect because things are changing at a rapid pace, then they'll come back and so, yeah, so we work on everything from whether it is, you know, 340b drug pricing to prescription drug, importation, patent settlement, legislation so very, very specific types of policy issues to the bigger pieces of funding for centers of excellence and centers for advanced technology and funding for things like we talked about earlier, right with the Biogenesis Park and the cell and gene therapy hubs. Like we talked about earlier, right with the Biogenesis Park and the cell and gene therapy hubs. We really engage on a broad cross-section of issues that bubble up both at the state and the federal, and sometimes both.
Ben Comer:Yeah, and do you. Is agriculture included too in your organization?
Jennifer Hawks Bland:Yeah, so we don't. In New York in particular, we don't have as many. You know, my colleague, my colleague, ceos in the Midwest in particular have a lot more of the ag and environment companies. I have a soft spot right because I grew up. I grew up on a farm and then I also grew up early in my career doing ag policy right, like I mentioned earlier. And so yes, and so I also think that when you're looking, if you think about biotechnology also through a biosecurity lens, you have to think about one health. You have to think about how animal health, human health, right, plant health, really are going to all work together. And I think it's a national security issue that we really need to pay attention to how how the choices that we make at the policy level whether it's ag, environment, human health they really all do need to be made with an idea of thinking about, ultimately, how they all work together to both protect our national security, but also how this sort of one health umbrella makes a difference.
Ben Comer:Right, excellent. Well, jennifer, we have come to our time pretty quickly here. I really appreciate you coming on the show.
Jennifer Hawks Bland:Oh, my gosh Ben, I had a great time. Thank you so much. This was fun.
Ben Comer:Yeah, thank you. We've been speaking with Jennifer Hawks-Bland, ceo at New York Bio. I'm Ben Comer and you've just listened to the Business of Biotech. Find us and subscribe anywhere you listen to podcasts and be sure to check out our new weekly videocasts of these conversations every Monday under the Business of Biotech tab at Life Science Leader. We'll see you next week and thanks for listening you.
