San Antonio and its surrounding areas are ripe for investment and opportunity, according to several city business leaders who presented at the Invest: San Antonio 2022-23 Leadership Summit.
Among them were BioBridge Global’s Becky Cap, who spoke on the panel, “Twin Pillars: How healthcare and higher education are driving innovation and economic diversity across Greater San Antonio” at the summit on May 17.
“What I’m seeing today in San Antonio is so exciting, and being at BioBridge Global, we’re able to touch so much of it,” said Cap, Senior Vice President, Business Development and Advanced Therapies. “It’s a phenomenal time to be a part of San Antonio.”
As the South Texas population grows rapidly, Cap noted how BioBridge Global has continued to innovate to meet demand and invest in healthcare access through building new donor centers, expanding manufacturing capacity for advanced therapies development, engaging more blood donors than ever, and more.
“On the therapeutic development side, we are in a rapidly growing and emerging market – highly innovative – so it’s all about the agility and collaboration and developing our capabilities and our workforce in collaboration with higher ed,” she said.
Cap and her team have played a vital role in building relationships with higher education institutions for internships with BBG’s biomanufacturing subsidiary, GenCure. A continuing challenge is developing the healthcare workforce.
“Right now, roughly 90% of therapies that go into clinical trials don’t get through,” she said. “So how can we make that a more efficient process and increase the therapeutic power of those options?
“That’s where we get another tie into the educational programs targeted to computer science, development and to the hospitals.”
The panel also included Joe Fisher, Hallmark University president and CEO; Tarra Washington, CEO of Kindred Hospital San Antonio Medical Center; and Robert Garza, president of Palo Alto College. The panel was moderated by Dr. Shreekanth Mandayam, vice president for research at Texas State University.
Capital Analytics, an integrated media platform, hosted the event and launched its annual business guide as a review of issues facing the South Texas economy, with insights from industry leaders across the region, including BioBridge Global CEO Martin Landon, who is featured in a Q+A. Other panels at the summit focused on real estate, economic development, and infrastructure growth.
