Members Named to Legislative Biotech Subcommittee
The members of the Virginia General Assembly’s Joint Subcommittee on Biotechnology and the Biosciences were named last week by the Speaker of the House, Bill Howell, and the Rules Committee of the Virginia State Senate.
The subcommittee, created by the Assembly’s passage of Delegate Mark Sickles’Â HJ 248, is charged to review proposals from previous study commissions, such as the Governor’s Biotechnology Commission, and recommend a “strategic and visionary plan” to enhance Virginia’s bioscience industry.
The subcommittee, expected to convene up to four times this year, will have a total of thirteen members and will receive administrative support from the staff of the House Clerk.
Representing the House of Delegates are Kathy Byron (R-Lynchburg), Dr. John O’Bannon (R-Henrico), Bob Purkey (R-Virginia Beach), Mark Sickles (D-Fairfax) and Margi Vanderhye (D-McLean).
Senators appointed to the Subcommittee are Mark Herring (D-Loudoun), Janet Howell (D-Reston), and Ryan McDougle (R-Hanover).
Virginia’s Secretary of Technology, Aneesh Chopra, is a member of the subcommittee as well as Pete Jobse, the president of the Center for Innovative Technology. Robert Skunda, president of the Virginia Biotechnology Research Park, will represent local economic development interests and Dr. Erik Hewlett, chairman of the University of Virginia Patent Foundation and on the faculty of the UVa Health System, will represent higher education.
The Senate plans to appoint the final member of the subcommittee, a representative from Virginia’s private sector biotech industry, sometime in the next few weeks.
The subcommittee is required to complete their study and report their findings by November 30
