Trump's science assault threatens Bay Area innovation engine

Veteran Bay Area biomedical CEO Paul Hastings had to lay off five dozen employees at his company earlier this year, thanks, he said, to what he described as the Trump administration's attacks on universities, science and medical-research funding, he said.

- Ethan Baron, Tribune News Service

Martin Babler

Trump in an August executive order said federal grants had been insufficiently vetted, and some “propagated absurd ideologies.” Hastings, whose South San Francisco firm Nkarta engineers “killer cells” to fight disease, said biotechnology companies “across the board” are cutting staff and product-development projects as uncertainty over what comes next rattles investors.

The biotech sector, producing treatments for maladies from rare genetic disorders to cancer, is a key economic engine for the Bay Area, pouring nearly $IOO billion into the region's economy annually, according to industry group Biocom California, and sending more than $4 billion into local and state tax coffers, trade group California Life Sciences reported. The Bay Area's life sciences sector - mostly made up of biotech companies involved in pharmaceuticals, medicine and research - last year received $2 billion in US National Institutes of Health funds, created $94 billion in direct economic output, and employed more than 150,000 people, industry group Biocom California reported. There is no projection available for 2025 funding.