There are more signs pointing to a resurgence of funding in San Diego’s life science industry following the post-COVID slump.
VC investments in San Diego biotech startups is on pace in 2024 to be the region’s best year ever, according to JLL. So far this year, San Diego has raked in a whopping $2.8 billion in life science investments.
The boon in investments has fueled gross leasing in life science to be on pace to exceed the annual pre-COVID average, JLL reports. 2024 has so far seen 1 million square feet of gross leasing in the San Diego life science market – 28% higher than the same period last year. However, the JLL report points out that the real estate market still has an oversupply of space available.
Beyond venture capital investments, research funding is also on the rise. Last week, UC San Diego announced $1.73 billion in new funds in its FY2024 report – 54% of its awards went to fund health sciences at the university.
Big winners include Scripps Institution of Oceanography, which had a 17% increase in funding over FY2023 with a total of nearly $302 million. School of Medicine professor Michael Hogarth was awarded $25.4 million from the California Department of Public Health to support biomedical informatics research for the state’s integrated records system. Also, Marine biology professor Brice Semmens received $6 million from NOAA to research ways to address the impacts of industrial waste dumping off the coast of Southern California. In total, there were 3,321 awards given to the university’s Health Sciences.
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Last month’s Comic-Con International saw a return to its usual highlights of big studio presentations and star appearances (Robert Downey Jr.’s return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, this time as villain Dr. Doom, was welcome surprise for fans) following last year’s event that was stripped down due to writers and actors strikes. This year’s event drew more than 135,000 people to the San Diego Convention Center over the four days with an estimated economic impact of more than $160 million.
The San Diego North EDC released a report during the event that highlighted the heroic economic impact of North County’s Encinitas Environmental Education (E3) Collaborative, which according to the report had “nearly the same economic impact as Comic-Con in 2023.”
Last year, E3 Collaborative – consisting of Seacrest Village, Encinitas Union School District Farm Lab, the Leichtag Foundation, Coastal Roots Farm, San Dieguito Heritage Ranch, San Diego Botanic Garden, Magdalena Ecke Family YMCA and the Community Resource Center – had a $145.2 million economic impact on the region and supported 1,087 direct jobs, according to the report.
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Topgolf debuted its latest golf club last week, which the company dubbed “The Sure Thing.” Topgolf designed the club with novice players in mind, to improve the likelihood of contact the ball while out enjoying a casual experience at one of its entertainment venues. The club, designed by Callaway engineers, has an “enormous” club face, 20-degree loft and shorter club shaft, according to the company.
