Heather Hanson, President, BioMedSA

One of the reasons why San Antonio is becoming a compelling ecosystem for the bioscience sector is its collaborative spirit, according to Heather Hanson, president of BioMedSA. “We see that in the drug development space, for example. San Antonio has all the necessary steps to go from the beginning of an idea, to computer modeling, screening, and testing, through to manufactured products and all the different steps in between needed to get FDA approval,” she told Invest:.

What were some significant milestones and achievements for BioMedSA in the last year?

We had a great year, starting with our BioTX Corridor event, which brought together Austin and San Antonio’s life science communities for networking and introduced both cities to each other’s resources. It is expected that by 2035, the San Antonio-Austin region will be a true mega-region, larger than Dallas-Fort Worth.

That event was followed by Biofest Days, which was our first ever series of events focused on the biomedical innovation and research ecosystem here. Different organizations are invited to hold events, and we co-promote those as an opportunity to come to San Antonio right before the city’s Fiesta® celebration. The goal is to celebrate biomedical activities as well as learn and make good connections. 

We had nine events during Biofest Days, with the headline event Biofest Invest. I’m happy to say that the pitching companies participating in that event have raised $85 million since the event started in 2021.

How do those events help companies?

It’s been successful for the startups that are participating, and also for the resource providers who have booths at the events to showcase what they can do to help these companies be successful in the biomedical space. 

Last year, we also launched Women in Bioscience as an event, a leadership series that also includes networking. We had two of those last year, and we’ll be continuing to do those this year. 

We also held our Innovation Award event, which highlights an innovator in the biomedical space. Last year, we featured Jason McLellan from UT Austin, who was a key researcher behind the mRNA technology. 

A lot is going on in this ecosystem. Some of our research institutions received a lot of accolades last year, either in federal funding or in ranking. In particular, UT Health San Antonio was rated in the Top 10 for fastest-growing research.

How are you leveraging this growth to continue to attract investment and to bolster collaboration in the region?

The biggest component of San Antonio’s success in the biomedical space is our accessible researchers and their willingness to collaborate. We are continuing to build on that as larger organizations are expanding and growing, increasing their national rankings and getting more funding to do research, building up that research capability that’s available for the whole region. That is only growing here in San Antonio.

How would you describe the skilled talent pool in the region?

San Antonio trains more STEM students than the city of Boston. We have the second-largest community college system in the country. There are already a lot of students receiving training here. BiomedSA’s role is more about introducing them to the industry, including research organizations. We do that through tours as well as speaking, helping find mentors, and judging competitions, among others. Students can also attend our various events and learn about what they’re going to be doing once they graduate.

How are you working to elevate the sector’s visibility nationally and globally to position San Antonio as a key player in this industry?

For the first time ever, San Antonio had a booth at the largest biotech conference in the world, which is called BIO. BioMedSA spearheaded that and put it together with the support of several community sponsors and industry sponsors. We’ll be doing that again this year. 

Increasing visibility for San Antonio’s ecosystem is important, not only for the entities that work in that ecosystem but also to boost awareness that this sector is the largest economic sector for San Antonio. When these companies succeed or when companies move here to San Antonio or spend business dollars here, that builds the labor pool, which provides opportunities for a broad range of people, from those right out of high school to those with advanced degrees. Those people then buy houses or rent apartments, go to the grocery store, and open bank accounts. All of those surrounding industries benefit from this sector being successful. When a large research organization gets another contract grant or a company moves here, it benefits the entire San Antonio community.

Are there any legislative policy changes or regulations that could impact your operations and the entrepreneurial ecosystems over the next few years?

For the last four years, we have been pushing for grant-matching for small-business grants that will benefit technology companies, but primarily biomedical startups. We are pleased that there is a bill at the Texas State Legislature right now to build that program of matching grants that the federal government gives out to these small businesses.

What are the main differentiators for San Antonio versus other bioscience ecosystems?

When people move here, they’re always surprised at how collaborative the community is. BiomedSA facilitates a lot of this, bringing competitors together to do something jointly because it’ll benefit the entire ecosystem and ultimately the community of San Antonio. That’s a spirit that you don’t see in a lot of other communities. The reason why that’s so important in the biomedical space, in particular, is that the sector is cross-functional. You need a lot of different teams coming together to get to a solution. That willingness to collaborate, even though you may be competitors, benefits the entire community. We see that in the drug development space, for example. San Antonio has all the necessary steps to go from the beginning of an idea, to computer modeling, screening, and testing, through to manufactured products and all the different steps in between needed to get FDA approval. 

What is your outlook for the biosciences industry in San Antonio over the next few years?

It is a positive outlook because this is a sector nationally, and internationally, that is continuing to grow. When we look at San Antonio, in particular, with the research organizations getting more and more funding and higher rankings, that makes San Antonio more attractive for businesses to locate here, do their research here, and do their work here. It’s looking positive for San Antonio, and the sector in particular.