Clinical trials are the lifeblood of biotech. Finding the right service providers (CROs, safety, IVRS, consultants, contract manufacturers and many others), as well as the right clinical investigators and sites, results in a complex web of legal obligations and potential liabilities. Limitation of liability clauses can reduce a party's exposure if a contractual obligation is breached. More often, limitations of liability provisions are used to shift risk to the sponsor of the clinical trial. But, if your contracts are well negotiated and drafted, the risks can be carefully and fairly allocated between the parties in a balanced and reasonable manner. Because of the complexity of the legal relationships and liabilities found in clinical trials, this article is limited to a brief description of limitation of liability clauses, and their general strengths and weaknesses.

Amid economic gloom, there are bright spots for San Diego life sciences innovators. Industry fundamentals remain favorable, technological advances continue to be made and $10 billion in funding from the National Institutes of Health was approved in the economic stimulus package signed by President Barack Obama. For the ag-biotech and clean energy cluster growing here, federally guaranteed loans may help underwrite construction of projects with new technologies in renewable energy at a time when debt markets are closed.

With 13.8 million square feet of inventory, San Diego County ranks as the third largest biotech hub in the United States behind Boston/Cambridge and the San Francisco Bay Area. This number will continue to grow due to the county's exceptional roster of educational and research institutions and recognition as a desirable place to live and work.

Heart disease and stroke continue to be the nation's No. 1 and 3 killers, and 142 million American adults -- 66 percent of Americans -- are overweight. Physical inactivity is a major risk factor for heart disease, and is a comparable risk to other modifiable risk factors such as high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure and smoking. About 70 percent of the American population engages in no regular leisure-time physical activity, which is defined as light-moderate activity for more than 30 minutes, five times a week, or vigorous activity (like brisk walking) for more than 20 minutes, three times a week.

Charles Darwin once said, "It is not necessarily the strongest that survive or the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change." The same can be said of the life sciences industry. For nearly a decade, life sciences companies have struggled against low productivity in research and development (R&D), loss of patent protection, competition from generics, skyrocketing costs, an ongoing talent shortage and diminishing corporate reputations.

In 1960, when President Kennedy said he wanted U.S. astronauts on the moon by the end of the decade, it seemed impossible. But the government used this single-minded agenda as a policy guide, and in 1969 there was that famous giant leap for mankind.

The versatile chumby just might provide consumers with a little too much information. What other gadget can jolt you out of bed in the morning and then flash images of what you did the night before?

Even as news of the region's biotech industry remains bleak, San Diego-based Novalar Pharmaceuticals just launched its first new product and has another in development.

Maintaining a 70 percent growth rate via organic growth as well as acquisitions during a recession is no mean feat. It's no wonder that Active Network CEO Dave Alberga is bullish about the future, his company and 2009 revenues.