On September 13, BioMed SA held its annual dinner at the Vista at Valero where hundreds of business and community leaders celebrated the accomplishments of the thriving healthcare and bioscience community.
Leonard Pinchuk, Ph.D., D.Sc., received the 2017 BioMed SA Award for Innovation in Healthcare and Bioscience. Dr. Pinchuk is a world-renowned biomaterials scientist, chemist, engineer and lead inventor of disruptive biomedical innovations including:
- World’s first commercially successful angioplasty balloon catheter
- TAXUS® - World’s most successful drugeluting coronary stent
- InnFocus MicroShunt® - Novel device to stop vision loss from glaucoma
- Two biomaterials used for implant applications
Dr. Pinchuk has more than 120 patents impacting hundreds of millions of lives. He is an elected member of the highly esteemed National Academy of Engineering, and is founder of Innovia LLC, which has incubated and spun off eight biomedical technologies.
The 2016 recipient of the Innovation Award was George E. Peoples, Jr., M.D., FACS, Colonel (retired) US Army. Dr. Peoples was recognized for his career as a wartime trauma surgeon, cancer immunotherapy pioneer, and San Antonio biomedical entrepreneur.
BioMed SA was created in 2005 out of the vision of former Mayor Henry Cisneros and President and CEO Joe Krier. Its mission is to “accelerate growth of the healthcare and bioscience sector, create regional economic benefit, and contribute to the health of San Antonio and beyond by establishing San Antonio as a leader in healthcare and bioscience.”
According to a 2016 economic impact study of the healthcare and bioscience industry commissioned by the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, one in six workers in San Antonio are employed in the industry, making it the largest employment cluster in our community. To download the study, click
here.
