In January 2020, BIO launched Good Day BIO, a daily morning newsletter with the day’s top biotech stories—in five minutes or less, and in pithy plain English.
With a global pandemic taking hold just a few weeks later, Good Day BIO quickly became essential reading for more than 30,000 biotech executives, policymakers, and media wanting to gain a better understanding of the rapidly emerging science and how the industry was responding—to COVID, and to other hot-button issues like climate change, antimicrobial resistance, cancer, pollution, and health inequity—to name a few.
With the BIO International Convention back in person for the first time in three years, we thought it would be fun to bring the Good Day BIO reader experience in person, too.
Good Day BIO LIVE! will bring you all of the news and highlights from the convention floor, airing live Monday through Thursday during the event at 7 AM PT. Watch the first episode:
Stay tuned for more!
Bio Convention Day 1 – Monday
Welcome to Good Day Bio Live coming to you from the 2022 Bio International Convention in San Diego, California, I’m Tetiana Anderson.
With thousands of people from dozens of countries and hundreds of sessions, we know it can be hard to keep up with everything.
So, we’ve got you covered with keynote speeches, educational sessions, and conversations with patient advocates, policymakers, and industry leaders like Dr. Michelle McMurry-Heath. She is the president and CEO of BIO. I spoke with her over the weekend to hear what it’s like to be back in person at the convention this year.
You have been president and CEO for about two years now, but this is your first time here in San Diego. How are you feeling?
And more importantly, it’s my first in-person BIO as CEO, so it’s just fantastic to be back. You can feel the vibe in the exhibit halls as you’re walking and everyone’s setting up these amazing exhibits to talk about all the great science. So, it’s fantastic.
And you took over as CEO during the pandemic, which must have been a heavy lift. What was that like for you?
It’s like that famous adage, the best of times and the worst of times. It was quite a challenge to come into a new organization that’s not just amazing and varied staff, but also, we represent so many different companies. In normal times, I probably would have hit the road almost immediately to go visit a lot of our member companies and see their work firsthand. So, we were limited in that extent.
But on the upside, we were answering the call as an industry to this great, global pandemic. And we really got front row seats to seeing science at its best. And that was inspiring, not just for myself, but for the entire Bio team.
And at that time social justice and diversity were front and center. How have those issues informed your mission as the new leader of this organization?
Yes, well, we like to say we’re about rapid biotech innovation that’s equitably harnessed for humanity. And that’s key to our refreshed mission and vision because we know how important it is. The first week I started was the first Virtual Bio Digital, but it was also the week of George Floyd’s funeral. So, it was really very salient that this was a time to shift gears for BIO, but also shift gears for the broader society.
A few months later, we launched our bio equality agenda which we’re making some substantial headway on. It’s been onward from there.
And how important do you think being in person is to some of the focus areas that you just mentioned?
Well, Tetiana, if you’d ask me a few years ago, I would have said: “we could probably do a lot with technology.” We can gather together, we can meet, and that’s all true. But there is something intangible about being in person and connecting at that human level. And particularly, when you’re trying to address these theory issues like diversity and inclusion and like making sure that you’re getting cures and biotech solutions out to as broad a number of people as possible, that those connections are just tangible and makes so much sense.
My team likes to tell the story that BioNTech and Pfizer first met at a partnering booth here at BIO. So, it just tells you how incredible it is for companies to be able to come together like this and form those relationships that make synergies possible.
And, speaking of that sort of level of excitement, what are you excited about this week?
So much. In addition to the fact that we have 40,000 partnering meetings scheduled for the next few days, and just to think about the number of collaborations and breakthroughs that are going to come from that, that’s exciting.
To think we have patient advocates from all over the country and the world. We have 60 countries represented by patients and companies. It’s incredible.
But I’m also looking forward to a lot of great dialogs. The main stage looks amazing and I can’t wait to see Venus Williams interviewed there. I think it’s going to be really interesting hearing about her personal patient journey as well as hearing from our great board chair Paul Hastings. So, lots of great activities are lined up.
There is a lot more happening this week. We’ll hear from a voice for gender equality, a Pulitzer Prize winning author, and an astronaut live from space. And we’ll meet our high school BioGENEius awards finalists. And, of course, there’s the interview by Emmy nominated sports reporter Erin Andrews.
We’ll be talking to Venus Williams, a seven-time Grand Slam singles champion, four-time Olympic gold medalist, and entrepreneur. She’ll share insights on her groundbreaking career, success in business, and a health journey that changed her life.
But before we get to all of that, let’s get through today. We’re watching several things for you. CEOs are set to reveal what they’re doing to create inclusivity in their companies and more access to biotech breakthroughs for patients. Government officials from half a dozen countries are looking at how to spur innovation and global collaboration. And we want to see all of you at the welcome reception, it kicks off at 5pm in the exhibit hall.
Remember, you can get all the day’s convention highlights at Good Day Bio or BIO.news. And right here with me on the next episode of Good Day Bio live, it airs 7am Pacific.
If you’re not already getting Good Day Bio in your inbox, visit BIO.org or BIO.news for all the top stories. We’ll see you right back here tomorrow.
