Legislative Caucus Events: Feb 4 & 5
The 2008 Session of the Virginia General Assembly will feature a new bipartisan caucus dedicated to the advancement of the life sciences industry in Virginia. The “Virginia Bioscience Legislative Caucus” (VBLC) was formed in October by two leading members of the state legislature, Delegate John O’Bannon, MD (R-Henrico) and Senator Janet Howell (D-Reston).”The VBLC will serve as a bipartisan forum for lawmakers to coordinate polices being developed in human, plant, and animal biosciences. Such dialog can lead to better understanding as to how to both grow Virginia’s economy and benefit our citizens with new life-saving medicines,” said Mark A. Herzog, executive director of the Virginia Biotechnology Association. Currently, bioscience caucus groups exist in state capitols such as Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri and in Washington at the Congressional level.Eighteen legislators have already joined the group, even before the first event has taken place. Members come from both parties and chambers of the legislature. They represent diversity in geography, and in large part reflect the distribution of key research and commercial hubs in the life sciences around Virginia.
The first event for the group will be the Virginia Bioscience Legislative Breakfast on February 5 at the Richmond Marriott Hotel. The breakfast will bring together members of the caucus along with key leaders from Virginia’s bioscience community. Details on registration are available here. There is also a reception the evening before with details available here.
“The caucus will serve as a valuable forum on how the state can best be positioned to attract new development or expand current business infrastructure,” said Robert T. Skunda, president and CEO of the Virginia BioTechnology Research Park in Richmond, and a former secretary of commerce and trade. “These legislators have supported the industry as individual members. Now we will have an organization to foster ongoing discussion and strategy for the industry’s future growth.”
For more information about the VBLC, please contact the VaBIO office at 804-643-6360
