The irony is that this region is one of the birthplaces of biotech. Calgene was an industry pioneer when it started up in 1980, and the company in 1994 marketed the world's first genetically modified foods, the longer-lasting Flavr Savr tomato. But financial problems forced Calgene into being taken over, and instead of starting new companies in town, most of its executives scattered like seeds in the wind. UC Davis says most of its biotech graduates go to work in the Bay Area. That will make things very difficult for Sacramento, said former Calgene Chief Executive Roger Salquist, who runs a San Francisco-based venture capital fund devoted to biotech.
Money is a central worry.
Not that there's a slew of Sacramento biotech companies soliciting venture capitalists for money. Of the more than 300 business proposals Salquist reviewed in the past year, only three or four came from the Sacramento area, he said. That happens less often here. Little things also have inhibited Sacramento's development as a biotech nexus. And then there is UC Davis, the research engine that business leaders hope will make biotech roar in Sacramento.