Jerry Hill and Nathan Fletcher receive CHI Advancing California Biomedical Research and Innovation Award

CHI-California Healthcare Institute, a non-profit public policy research organization, honored Assembly Members Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo) and Nathan Fletcher (R-San Diego) with the CHI Advancing California Biomedical Research and Innovation Award at a biomedical industry dinner on Feb. 2 in Sacramento. Hill is chairman of the Assembly Select Committee on Biotechnology, and Fletcher is vice chairman of the Assembly Select Committee on Biotechnology.

“CHI would like to recognize their commitment to fostering the development, commercialization and market for new medical products and maintaining a highly skilled workforce in California.”

“Both Jerry Hill and Nathan Fletcher have actively partnered with the California biomedical industry to promote state policies that improve the business climate in California,” said David Gollaher, Ph.D., CHI’s president and CEO. “CHI would like to recognize their commitment to fostering the development, commercialization and market for new medical products and maintaining a highly skilled workforce in California.”

CHI honored Hill and Fletcher at a dinner to launch the California Biomedical industry 2010 Report, released by CHI and PricewaterhouseCoopers. According to the report, the biomedical industry is one of the most recession-resilient sectors in California’s hard-hit economy and a critical driver of innovation, job growth and revenues that will help lead the state to economic recovery. California’s biomedical industry directly employs 274,000 people, representing one in six of the 1.6 million biomedical jobs in the United States.