San Antonio biotech to get city money to augment its war on cancer

AUGUST 25, 2016
As published in the San Antonio Business Journal
By W. Scott Bailey
 
City Council authorized the San Antonio Economic Development Corporation on Thursday to directly invest in bioAffinity Technologies. It’s another indication that City Hall is looking to strengthened its commitment to the community’s bioscience industry.
 
The SAEDC has been given the green light to invest $150,000 in bioAffinity, a San Antonio-based biotech company focused on what its leadership contends is an unmet need for non-invasive, early-stage cancer diagnostics and improved cancer treatments. As part of its agreement with bioAffinity, the company will be required to accelerate job creation and keep its headquarters in San Antonio.
 
“This investment is important on multiple levels,” bioAffinity President and CEO Maria Zannes told me. “Certainly, it establishes us as a San Antonio biotech company. It’s also important because it shows the city has recognized our advancement.”
 
The San Antonio Development Corporation is a nonprofit organization established by City Council in 2010 to help facilitate economic development projects and to create new avenues for the city to secure equity in select companies.
 
City Manager Sheryl Sculley said the decision to invest in bioAffinity will create another opportunity for local leaders to help bring more high-wage jobs to San Antonio.
Meanwhile, Ed Davis, executive director of SAEDC, said local leaders have chosen to put their support behind a company that has an opportunity to become a global player in the war on cancer.