BioHive Takes the Stage at One Utah Summit
May 12, 2022
The BioHive community was featured prominently at the One Utah Summit held on May 10 at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City. Speakers from the life sciences industry addressed the crowd on topics ranging from job creation and talent development to life-saving innovation and drug discovery.
Tom Polen, CEO of BD, and Rob Allen, SVP and COO of Intermountain Healthcare, joined Gov. Spencer Cox in a fireside chat to talk about innovation, partnerships and how navigating the pandemic has shaped the life sciences sector. Polen pointed out that 70% of catheters used in hospitals are manufactured by BD here in Utah and noted BD’s critical work in the midst of the pandemic. BD developed one of the first rapid COVID-19 tests and produced an extra 2 billion syringes for countries to deliver vaccines.
“We were excited to have these distinguished industry leaders take center stage with the governor to share their insights about driving innovation and responding to COVID-19,” said Kelvyn Cullimore, president and CEO of BioUtah.
In his remarks, the governor embraced Utah’s culture of innovation and collaboration as the best path forward to tackle the state’s challenges. ”I believe that ideas actually make and create new ideas and that it’s really important to get new people and different perspectives in a room together, having conversations and listening,” Cox said.
Katelin Roberts, executive director of BioHive, presented on the economic impact of the industry and connecting companies to patient stories – including her own personal journeys as a patient. Roberts also discussed workforce issues as part of a Talent Ready Utah panel. “The One Utah Summit provided an exceptional opportunity to showcase the BioHive before a state-wide audience of diverse interests,” said Roberts.
In an afternoon breakout session, Cullimore along with David Bearss, president and CEO of Halia Therapeutics, Cindy Dunkle, chief people officer of Denali Therapeutics, and Tina Larson, president and COO of Recursion, discussed Utah’s fast-growing biotech hub, including accelerated drug discovery and generic drug manufacturing.