Representatives of big pharmaceutical companies proclaimed San Diego County their preferred West Coast headquarters last month during the Calbiosummit at the San Diego Convention Center. The gathering has become California’s annual statewide biotech meeting.

The “big pharmas” find their cornucopia of new drugs running dry, and they’re looking to San Diego’s biotechnology companies and life science research institutes to refill them. Moreover, large computer companies such as IBM and Sun Microsystems have established growing ties to local biotechs.

Pfizer, Novartis, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Elan Pharmaceuticals have set up a physical presence in San Diego in recent years. They join companies such as Johnson & Johnson, who have had a local presence for nearly 20 years.

Panelists from the drug companies discussed the importance of San Diego to their companies at a Calbiosummit panel discussion during the first morning of the convention.

Pfizer first chose the Bay Area for its West Coast headquarters but lately has emphasized San Diego, says Jeff Southerton, site head of strategic alliances for Pfizer in La Jolla.

“The West Coast in general, and San Diego in particular, is really a rich source of collaborators,” says Southerton, who is moving to San Diego.

Pfizer acquired San Diego-based Agouron Pharmaceuticals when it merged with Warner-Lambert two years ago. Instead of closing down or moving Agouron, Pfizer kept Agouron as a research and development arm.

“That gives a great opportunity to be here, be involved and use that as our West Coast site,” for strategic alliances, Southerton says.

Ireland-based Elan has signed eight of its 55 collaborations with San Diego area companies, says Daniel G. Welch, president of Elan’s biopharmaceuticals division. Elan calls itself a biopharmaceutical company, neither a big pharma nor a biotech, but with characteristics of both. Carlsbad’s Isis Pharmaceuticals has two of those deals with Elan. One is a $23 million pact to make drugs that can be taken orally using Isis’ gene-blocking antisense technology. The other is a $15 million deal to develop an antisense drug against the hepatitis C virus.

The lure of biotech extends outside of big pharma to the Dow Chemical Co. Panelist Carolyn Fritz, Dow’s global business director, says Dow has found biotech relevant to the chemical industry.

“Our annual research budget exceeds $1 billion, and we spend about two thirds of that budget for new products and new technologies,” Fritz says. “What that means is that as a company, we’re very focused on growth and innovation. Our investment in biotechnology is an essential part of our ability to achieve our objectives for growth and develop new products and new technologies.”

Dow’s partnerships include an alliance with San Diego-based Epicyte to make animal antibodies in plants for animal health care products. Dow also collaborates with San Diego’s Diversa to find and develop new enzymes for industrial uses.

The thirst for biotech extended to the convention’s exhibit floor, where service companies and local economic development agencies advertised how they could help biotech.

Exhibitors included computer maker Sun Microsystems, which deals with biotech through its life sciences division.

Sun’s San Diego campus employs about 500 people, says Siamek H. Zadeh, a Sun group manager.

Sun began cultivating the life science market years ago when scientists worked to decipher the human genetic code through the Human Genome Project, Zadeh says.

Nearly 500 biotech and life-science companies are based in San Diego County, says Joe Panetta, president and CEO of Biocom/San Diego. Local biotechs have 50 products in late clinical trials. These companies produce $1.5 billion in annual revenues from drug sales. Total life science employment reached 32,000 in 2000, Biocom reports.

About 500 people attended the convention. It was presented by Biocom, the local biotech trade group, and sponsored by Sun Microsystems.

Calbiosummit was canceled last year, when San Diego held the international Biotechnology Industry Organization convention. Biocom decided it was impossible to do both in the same year, and used the hiatus to move Calbiosummit from the fall to the spring.