Tunnell opens San Diego office to tap biotech

Tunnell Consulting, King of Prussia, a drug development, manufacturing and regulatory adviser that counts Merck and Wyeth among its clients, has added a San Diego office headed by Siddharth Advanta, PhD, a former director at Diosynth Technology.
  The shift reflects the pharmacy industry's move from "small-molecule pharmacology" -- pills and capsules -- to biotechnology treatments involving genomics and proteins, said Conrad Heilman, PhD, a virologist who's Tunnell's Senior Vice President and head strategist for life sciences. That shift is driven by the federal government's Medicare cost controls, which has made traditional drug development less profitable.
  "We're watching biotechnology blossom -- technologies that help us understand cells and disease products better. That industry is really booming," Heilman said. "For us as a consulting firm, we need to position ourselves to be part of that growth and help that industry develop." Biotech is big in Southern California, and that's Tunnell's new hub.
  Tunnell, founded in 1962 by Kenneth W. Tunnell, is owned by its 65 fulltime employees. It also employs 130 field consultants, mostly scientists who have left big corporations.