Where Progress Lives: This Month in California Life Sciences June 2026

Each month, California Life Sciences (CLS) President and CEO Mike Guerra shares what’s shaping the life sciences industry, highlights the conversations that matter most to members, and offers a window into what the CLS team is working on.

In June, the global biotechnology community convened right in our backyard. The BIO International Convention brought tens of thousands of innovators, investors, and partners to San Diego from June 22 to 25, and it arrived at a defining moment for California. The conversations on the floor returned again and again to the same question I have been raising with lawmakers: how we sustain the leadership California has built, at a time when that leadership is no longer guaranteed.

Protecting the leadership California built

For fifty years, California has been the birthplace of biotech and the place the world came to do something extraordinary. That leadership was built on a policy environment that valued research and rewarded risk, and California’s R&D tax credit was the lone shining star among state incentives encouraging companies to invest here.

Last month, Sacramento passed a budget that imposes a permanent cap on R&D tax credits after 2030, a shocking and disheartening decision in a state that boasts the title and legacy of being the “birthplace of biotech.” The life sciences are California’s second largest sector and the most aggressive users of the R&D tax credit, because our companies spend billions every year hiring researchers and scientists while also making massive investments in the capital-intensive work of R&D needed to create life-saving cures and treatments.

We are already seeing red flag trends in our 2026 Sector Report: for the first time we experienced consecutive years of employment loss in our major life sciences regions and a staggering 34% drop-off in venture capital funding for startup biotechs in San Diego.

As China and other countries compete aggressively for the same companies, capital, and talent, our leadership in biomedical innovation is not guaranteed, and protecting it is some of the most important work we do. I shared more about what this moment demands in a recent op-ed for the Los Angeles Times.

A federal response that meets the moment

That same competitive pressure is playing out on the national stage, and June brought a federal development worth noting. For years, CLS has warned that America’s biomedical leadership is not guaranteed, and that China’s deliberate, state-directed strategy to dominate clinical research, recruit top talent, and accelerate drug development poses a genuine threat to U.S. leadership in medical innovation.

On June 22, the Department of Health and Human Services announced a plan to mobilize the FDA, NIH, ARPA-H, and other agencies in a coordinated effort to restore U.S. leadership in clinical trials, the strategic, targeted response the moment requires. We commend the Administration for its commitment to ensuring that America remains the global destination for biomedical discovery, where research institutions, innovators, and patients waiting for treatments can all thrive. Read my full statement.

California’s advantage on display at BIO 2026

The BIO International Convention is where the strength of our ecosystem shows up in person. I had the chance to moderate a program for students and early-career professionals, walking through the many sectors that make up life sciences and the range of paths open to people entering the field. Watching that next generation engage with everything from academia to industry was a reminder of how deep California’s talent pipeline runs.

Our Senior Vice President of Membership, Kim Brocchini, joined a panel of industry experts to discuss our sector’s ecosystem advantage, where the throughline was connection: investors, policymakers, and service providers form an ecosystem of experts that founders can tap into. Her advice to companies was to start early and often, and a great place to begin is with your state trade organization. When companies take full advantage of the resources the ecosystem has to offer, you can see the diversity of mentorship they have received, with our whole community rallying around our startup founders to help them accelerate.

The same theme carried into a candid conversation on how our industry moves forward, with our Senior Vice President of Government Relations & External Affairs, Sam Chung, and Tim Scott, President & CEO of Biocom. Sam made a point that captures California’s particular advantage: we sit at the international intersection of technology and biotechnology, and the convergence of the two is the future of medicine. He also returned to a theme that runs straight through this month’s story, the importance of keeping investment flowing. A regulatory environment that leans too far in one direction can leave investors hesitant to back biotech, and California’s task is to remain a place where investors look at our companies and see opportunity worth pursuing.

Backing the founders building here

That same spirit was on display earlier in the month at our Innovation Showcase at UCSF Mission Bay on June 10, where we caught a glimpse of the next generation of therapeutics and medtech coming out of California’s startup community. The afternoon opened with investors discussing how advances in imaging, artificial intelligence, biomarker identification, and genetics are changing the landscape of neuroscience. Our Spring 2026 FAST California cohort took the stage to pitch expert investors, capping 12 weeks of refinement and mentorship in the program. What stood out most was the community showing up to support these founders, coming together around the people building toward healthier lives for all.

Looking Ahead

June showed both the stakes and the strengths of this moment. From our conversations at BIO to the work in Sacramento and Washington and the founders taking the stage at Innovation Showcase, it all points to the same truth: California built the world’s leading life sciences ecosystem, and sustaining it now takes the same deliberate effort that created it. The advantages are real, the talent is here, and the resolve across our community to protect what we have built is exactly what gives me confidence heading into the second half of the year. I am grateful for the colleagues and partners who make all of this possible, and I look forward to sharing more next month.

Mike Guerra is President and CEO of California Life Sciences (CLS), California’s most influential life sciences trade association, representing more than 1,300 member companies. He chairs the Council of State Bioscience Associations and sits on multiple industry boards, working to advance California’s position as the world’s leading life sciences innovation ecosystem. Mike champions effective public policy at the national, state, and local levels, and is a steadfast advocate for the entrepreneurs and businesses driving life sciences forward in California.