Faces of California Biomedical Innovation:

Sean Young

Just before his second birthday Sean Young was diagnosis with Cystic Fibrosis (CF). CF is a genetic, progressive disease that fills up the lungs and other parts of the body with a dangerous, thick mucus. If not treated and monitored consistently CF is fatal and at the time most patients with CF did not live past 30.

“Our son is growing and thriving and it’s because of the biomedical sector,” Sean’s mother Katrina notes in the video. Thanks to the life sciences sector in California, Sean is a senior in college pursuing his dream of going into the medical field. He knows that without the treatments he undergoes every day he would have more infections and more hospitalizations. Both Sean and Katrina have the fortune of living in California where the biomedical industry is creating essential drugs that treat the underlying causes of CF.

The Youngs, who live in San Diego, know that without access to the care and innovations that Sean undergoes to stay healthy, life would be a lot harder. Patients like Sean all over California rely on new, life-saving treatments and rely on the accessibility to these treatments. Sean and Katrina have been helping to support this access by speaking out and empowering others to do so as well.

Policymakers can protect treatments, access, and the momentum to keep the biomedical sector working and producing ground-breaking innovations. Katrina Young thanks policymakers for all they’ve done to protect the industry thus far, but she urges them to keep hearing from patients and to keep enacting smart legislation that does not harm the industry and those impacted by it.