Harry Gruber Headlines Ivy Family Office Network Los Angeles Forum
Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) July 02, 2013 -- Harry Gruber of Tocagen headlined the Ivy Family Office Network Los Angeles, CA Mid-Year Outlook Forum with a discussion on “The Future of Healthcare Investing”. The Forum was held on June 18th in Los Angeles, CA.
According to Mr. Gruber, “Scientific breakthroughs are driving a revolution in healthcare. There are important breakthroughs in Genomics, Precision Medicine and Gene Therapy with potential for real cures over current pharmaceutical company practice of long term prescription usage. All of this is under a backdrop of rising healthcare costs and government incentives to rationalize expense. But we’ve reached an inflection point for delivery of gene therapy.”
“Moreover, we think gene therapy can be used to harness the immune system by delivering genes to activate the immune system against the tumor. Also, genes can be delivered to turn off the shields cancer uses to hide from the immune system by delivering inhibitory RNA to turn off shield genes in a tumor and to produce powerful localized tumor killing while minimizing autoimmune response against tissues and organs.”
Harry Gruber is one of the pioneers in gene therapy. Dr. Gruber co-founded Tocagen a company dedicated to the development and commercialization of novel treatments for cancer using advanced gene transfer technology. Previously, Harry Gruber was a founder and/or inventor of the underlying technology for six public companies, which achieved a combined value over $7 billion, including: Viagene, Inc (acquired by Novartis), Gensia Inc. (acquired by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Ltd.), INTERVU Inc. (acquired by Akamai Technologies, Inc) and Kintera Inc. (acquired by Blackbaud). He is the author of over 100 original scientific articles and an inventor on over 33 issued and numerous pending patents.
Dr. Gruber holds a BA and a MD from the University of Pennsylvania and trained in Internal Medicine, Biochemical Genetics and Rheumatology/Immunology at the University of California, San Diego, where he subsequently joined the medical school faculty until founding Gensia, Inc.
Dr. Gruber has received numerous awards, including STARCOM “Master Entrepreneur of the Year’, San Diego Magazine “50 People to Watch”, Ernst & Young’s “Entrepreneur of the Year Award” and San Diego’s “Inventor of the Year Award”.
Dr. Gruber’s community activities include previously serving on the Board of Overseers of the School of Arts and Sciences of the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Pennsylvania Medical School National Alumni Council and the University of California, san Diego School of Engineering and the School of Medicine Advisory Council.
The Ivy Family Office Network Forum provides an ongoing dialogue for family offices to support high-value education and information on trends for family office investing, structure and operational excellence. Attendees gain practical strategies and solutions to achieve both short and long-term objectives. The program features off-the-record, peer-to-peer discussions in a non-commercial setting, in-depth and highly interactive sessions.
About The Ivy Family Office Network
The Ivy Family Office Network, IvyFON, is a leading peer to peer global family office network with several hundred family offices attending their events around The Americas within the past 12 months. Some of the more than 1,200 past speakers have included 5 of the top 10 largest asset allocating consultancies, pre-eminent alternative investment funds by return, leading institutional investors by size, best-in-class asset management professionals, family office subject matter experts and world-class family offices.
Premier Speakers have included Ron Baron, Fred Nazem, Steve Prostano, John Taylor and many others. Forum sessions are multi-format and cross-disciplinary covering a range of family office centric topics.
IvyFON’s expertise is an outgrowth of one of the United States’ oldest and largest alternative investment networks, the IvyPlus network. IvyPlus originated as a peer to peer private equity, real estate and hedge fund network consisting of Ivy League and comparable school alumni as well as meritorious participants in the program. Additionally, the group supports New York City and Los Angeles deal networks across multiple disciplines including private equity and real estate. More than 10,000 investment, family office and institutional investment professionals have attended forums globally. For more information on the Ivy Family Office Network, go to ivyfon.com/contact.html.
For more information on Tocagen, contact Susan Wilson at swilson(at)tocagen(dot)com
Marty Secada, Ivy Plus, 646-290-8114, [email protected]
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