Where Progress Lives: This Month in California Life Sciences July 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, I wrote about the stakes: a competitive position that is no longer guaranteed, and the deliberate work it takes to protect it. July was a month that showed what that work is for. Across our ecosystem, the science moved from bench to bedside: A landmark approval opened a new door for patients with sickle cell disease, a pipeline of clearances and designations advanced behind it, and the market began to show renewed confidence in the companies building here. Progress like this is the strongest argument there is for protecting the ecosystem that makes it possible.

Science Reaching Patients

The most important news this month was for patients. The FDA approved Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ Casgevy as the first gene therapy for patients aged two and older with sickle cell disease, extending a treatment that was already changing lives to some of the youngest patients who need it. For those who were in the room at our Cell and Gene Therapy Symposium last year, this milestone lands with particular weight. Adrienne Shapiro shared a deeply personal account of living with sickle cell disease across five generations of her family, a reminder that progress in this field is measured not only in regulatory approvals but in lives extended. She spoke of the first CRISPR-based sickle cell approvals in 2023 as both a scientific triumph and a reminder of how much work remains to be done, with therapies out of reach for patients around the world because of their cost and the intensity of the treatment they require. Extending Casgevy to children as young as two is real progress on that front. It’s also a marker of the work still ahead, to make sure life-changing breakthroughs can reach every patient that needs it.

Beyond that milestone, the pipeline across our member companies kept advancing. Visby Medical earned FDA clearance for the first multi-viral at-home PCR test for flu and COVID-19, putting fast, accurate results directly in patients’ hands and helping them make quicker decisions about care. Acadia Pharmaceuticals received Fast Track designation for remlifanserin, an investigational treatment for Alzheimer’s disease psychosis, a serious condition with no FDA-approved therapies today. Genentech’s Gazyva was granted Priority Review for primary membranous nephropathy, where it could become the first approved therapy for a chronic disease that can lead to irreversible kidney damage.

From clearance to designation to review, these are the next breakthroughs working their way toward the patients waiting for them.

The Market Showing Its Confidence

If the science is the proof, the market is beginning to show its belief in it. After the more cautious stretch we documented in the California Life Sciences 2026 Sector Report, this month brought encouraging signs. Scribe Therapeutics, the CRISPR company that emerged in 2020 alongside a partnership with Biogen, priced its initial public offering above its target range this month. It raised more than $150 million, a strong show of investor demand for a California company as it advances a first-in-human study of a gene silencer targeting PCSK9, a well-known cardiovascular target. On July 6, Vertex announced an agreement to acquire Crinetics Pharmaceuticals, adding a commercialized and late-stage endocrinology portfolio that includes the first once-daily oral therapy approved for acromegaly, a rare and debilitating condition. That deal is expected to close in the third quarter. A warm reception for new offerings and strategic dealmaking of this kind are signals that capital sees opportunity in the companies building here, which is exactly what our ecosystem needs.

Clearing the Path to Patients

Approving a therapy is one milestone. Making sure patients can reach it is another, and both patient access and the conditions that keep research moving came through in two conversations our team joined this month. Our Senior Vice President of Government Relations and External Affairs, Sam Chung, sat down with the Physician Association of California for its PAC & Forth podcast, where he laid out how prior authorization is causing real harm to patients, how the vertical integration of pharmacy benefit managers, insurers, and pharmacies is driving up costs and limiting access, and why reforms like SB 41, PBM transparency, and rebate pass-through matter for the people waiting on treatment. He also discussed the effort to eliminate prior authorization for FDA-approved rare disease therapies, a change that would help some of our most vulnerable patients get care without delay. In a separate conversation with Voices of Inclusive Research, Sam examined AB 1776 and its implications for clinical research in California, raising his concern that the bill as written could create legal barriers that discourage partnerships, slow innovation, and make it harder to run the trials that bring new therapies to patients.

In July, I published an opinion piece breaking down how AB 1776 would expose life sciences companies to sweeping antitrust liability, making it too risky for investors to take a chance on a potential medical breakthrough. Nearly 70% of all life sciences companies in California have fewer than ten employees. These companies lack the funds to withstand years of litigation, and large companies will avoid partnering with smaller entities if it exposes them to liability. If AB 1776 becomes law, we risk losing the breakthroughs that our state’s unique innovation pipeline is built to inspire — not because the science stops, but because it happens somewhere else. Read my full statement in Endpoints News.

Celebrating What’s Made in California

All of the approvals, dealmaking, and advocacy points to the same truth: there is no shortage of excellence coming out of California’s life sciences community. The Pantheon Awards exist to celebrate exactly that. I hope you will join us on November 12 at the Westin St. Francis in San Francisco for the life sciences celebration of the year, where we will honor the discoveries made here, the products approved here, and the people who made them happen, all under this year’s theme, Made in California. Stay tuned as we announce this year’s awardees.

Looking Ahead

July was a month of proof. The science moving out of California reached patients in ways that were unimaginable not long ago, the market showed renewed confidence in the companies building here, and our team kept up the work of clearing the path between breakthrough and bedside. The headwinds we have talked about in recent months are real, and so is this progress. That is precisely why protecting this unique ecosystem matters, because when we get it right, the result is a child with sickle cell disease who now has an option, and a pipeline full of the next innovations in life science that will help even more people.

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.