Prominent Bucks Co. Business Leaders Join PA Biotech Center Board

DOYLESTOWN, PA — The leadership of the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center (PABC) is welcoming two prominent Bucks County business leaders to its Board of Directors.

Mark R. Schweiker, a former Governor of Pennsylvania, and J. David Owens, a biotech entrepreneur and executive, were unanimously elected to the PABC Board at its winter meeting.

“Both Gov. Schweiker and David Owens are brilliant business leaders, and we are thrilled that they’ve agreed to join our board," said Louis P. Kassa III, MPA, chief executive officer of the Hepatitis B Foundation, Baruch S. Blumberg Institute, and PABC. "They have extensive knowledge of the biotech industry, the Philadelphia region and the PABC, plus they are deeply engaged in our Bucks County community. Their perspectives and leadership will help ensure the continued strength and growth of our organization.”

A lifelong resident of Bucks County, Schweiker was Governor from 2001 to 2003 after serving as Lieutenant Governor from 1994 to 2001. He is an accomplished corporate executive and provides strategic guidance, as well as government and media relations services to Fortune 500 companies, privately held firms and nonprofit organizations. Schweiker served as president of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce (GPCC), one of the nation’s largest business-advocacy organizations, and his many awards include Life Sciences Public Official of the Year.

Schweiker played a key role in the PABC’s creation, helping secure the state support that allowed the Hepatitis B Foundation to purchase and completely renovate the Doylestown-area property it identified to develop its headquarters and research labs. That facility also houses the biotech incubator that became the PABC, which is now home to more than 60 start-up and early-stage companies in life sciences and several nonprofits.

David Owens is president and CEO of BiologicsMD, Inc., a position he has held since 2013. He brings over 40 years of pharmaceutical and biotechnology management and commercialization experience. Owens is a General Partner with Bowman's Tower Venture Partners, an early-stage investment group. He was Co-CEO and President of OrthogenRx, a PABC-member company he led through acquisition by Avanos in 2022. Owens held executive positions at King Pharmaceuticals (now part of Pfizer) and Aventis Pharma (now part of Sanofi) after working at Genentech, Merck and Abbott Labs.

A graduate of the University of Wisconsin, School of Pharmacy, and local resident, Owens serves on the Bucks County Herald Board of Directors, as well as three early-stage local biotech companies.

About the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center (PABC)

The PABC uses a highly successful services-based approach to nurture and guide its member companies to success, advance biotechnology and maximize synergies among nonprofit scientists and their commercial colleagues. The PABC has about 90 member companies and organizations, primarily small to mid-size biotech and life sciences companies. Nearly 60 of those operate on the Doylestown campus, which is home to the Hepatitis B Foundation and Blumberg Institute. The PABC also manages B+labs at Cira Centre, an incubator in Philadelphia with 18 resident companies, in partnership with Brandywine Realty Trust. PABC companies have produced numerous FDA-approved drugs and medical devices, and a recent study found that the PABC’s economic impact reached $7.1 billion and supported nearly 1,000 jobs during a recent three-year period. Please visit our website and follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter (@BiotechnologyPa) and Facebook.