Emerging bioscience companies from San Antonio will have an opportunity to present to investors, researchers and entrepreneurs at the Texas Life Science Conference November 5-7 at the Brown Foundation Institute for Molecular Medicine in Houston.
BioMed SA serves as a Community Partner for the statewide conference, organized by BioHouston and the Texas Healthcare and Bioscience Institute. The conference is expected to bring together more than 300 of the life science industry's preeminent venture capitalists, leading researchers, and emerging company executives.
FOR FULL STORY.

State Sen. Leticia Van de Putte presents award to John Feik (left) and Paul Johnson of DPT (Photo Courtesy DPT Laboratories)

DPT Laboratories Ltd. received the state’s “Texas Treasure Business Award” for its contributions to the Texas economy. DPT is a contract development and manufacturing operation based in San Antonio. The company manufactures semi-solid and liquid medical products on behalf of pharmaceutical, biotechnology and health care companies.


FOR FULL STORY. (San Antonio Business Journal, October 20, 2008)

The economic impact of San Antonio's health care and bioscience industry grew by $1 billion in 2007 to $16.3 billion and added about 3,600 jobs, according to a report released Tuesday by the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce. The 116,417 jobs in medical services, research, health insurance and related industries accounted for one in seven jobs in San Antonio and a payroll of $4.5 billion. About 12,000 additional jobs at Wilford Hall Medical Center, Brooke Army Medical Center and the University of Texas Health Science Center were not included in the study. Those jobs come with a payroll of about $775 million.
FOR FULL STORY. (San Antonio Express-News, October 15, 2008)

Dr. Julio Palmaz, the man best known for inventing the revolutionary cardiovascular stent in San Antonio, has launched a company to develop a new generation of the life-saving device. Palmaz Scientific Inc. will be a Dallas-based company headed by Palmaz, CEO Steve Solomon and San Antonio bioscience executive Chris Banas. Legendary restaurateur Phil Romano of Macaroni Grill and Rudy's fame is a major investor. Palmaz developed the initial technology for the stent — called the Palmaz stent — which shores up the walls of the artery after an angioplasty to prevent a collapse and blockage of the artery again. The 1988 development at the University of Texas Health Science Center changed the way clogged vessels were treated and became the basis for a multibillion industry.
FOR FULL STORY. (San Antonio Express-News, October 15, 2008)

EXPRESS-NEWS FILE PHOTO

San Antonio's Vidacare EZ-IO was named the country's top innovation in the Wall Street Journal's 2008 Technology Innovation Award competition.

The Vidacare Corp. device, which was developed with the University of Texas Health Science Center, uses a battery-powered driver to quickly insert a needle directly into the bone for delivery of medicine in an emergency situation. The device saves lifesaving seconds that would be used to get a needle into collapsed veins.The Journal selected Vidacare's EZ-IO from among 700 entries in its eighth annual competition for a gold award.

FOR FULL STORY. (San Antonio Express-News, September 30, 2008)

The San Antonio biomedical industry honors three San Antonio doctors with the third annual Palmaz Award for their innovations that have made a difference for children around the world. BioMed SA presented the award to Dr. Robert Campbell Jr. and the late Dr. Melvin Smith for their work on developing the titanium rib for children with spinal and chest deformities and identifying Thoracic Insufficiency Syndrome. Also honored is Dr. Kaye Wilkins, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon in San Antonio who has trained general orthopedic surgeons and medical technicians in impoverished countries so they can better care for children.
FOR FULL STORY. (San Antonio Express-News, September 16, 2008)

BioMed SA completed its second full year of operation in 2007 with continued progress towards achieving the organization's mission - to promote San Antonio's healthcare and bioscience assets to accelerate growth of the sector and enhance San Antonio's reputation as a city of science and medicine. For a review of our strategic accomplishments, see "Celebrate the Science of San Antonio"

As America’s seventh largest city, San Antonio is a community that embraces science and medicine. Its vibrant healthcare and bioscience industry, a dominant force in the city’s economy with an annual economic impact exceeding $15 billion, combines unique assets and a diversity of resources with a collaborative spirit that is making a global impact on science and health. For more information on San Antonio and its expanding Healthcare and bioscience industry, see "San Antonio: The Seventh-Largest U.S. City...and Growing" (Forbes Magazine)

The University of Texas Health Science Center has landed a $26 million federal grant that will support an effort to get research innovations from the lab to the medical clinic more quickly. Part of the five-year project will support efforts by a dozen regional health care providers to take clinical trials into underserved areas of South Texas.
FOR FULL STORY. (San Antonio Express-News, May 28, 2008)

A 2-year-old collaborative between two publicly traded health care companies has reached a tangible outcome in San Antonio — the Medco Center for Health Action, aimed at improving health services and reducing health costs nationwide.
FOR FULL STORY. (San Antonio Express-News, May 21, 2008)

The Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research is taking a step toward putting San Antonio on the biomedical industry map by spinning off a company focused on women's health drugs.
FOR FULL STORY. (San Antonio Express-News, March 10, 2008)

A new study with headquarters in San Antonio will spend the next five years investigating the best ways of detecting and treating post-traumatic stress disorder in active duty personnel and soldiers who recently have been discharged. The $33 million project will be led by The University of Texas Health Science Center and will involve military and civilian researchers from across Texas.
FOR FULL STORY. (San Antonio Express-News, March 21, 2008)

San Antonio's military and civilian medical experts are positioning the city as one of the nation's major centers for trauma research and treatment. "From a military standpoint, we have 500 deaths per year in a time of war, but the trauma problem is so much greater in the civilian world with 160,000 deaths annually," said Col. John Holcomb, commander of the U.S. Army's Institute of Surgical Research.
FOR FULL STORY. (San Antonio Express-News, November 11, 2007)