July 1994: Fostering Collaboration

The PCF hosts its first annual Scientific Retreat in Santa Barbara.

The rules are clear: if you accept PCF funding, you must return each year and share your research findings.

On the Retreat’s opening day, the medical researchers sit with other researchers, usually from the same institution, and industry representatives with each other. (For-profit research was often viewed as beneath and behind the work being done in the university setting.) On the second day, after some of the impressive presentations from biotech and pharma companies, everyone begins to mingle. It’s clear to all participants that they can accomplish more working together than individually.