THOUSAND OAKS : Amgen CEO Joins Board of Think-Tank

The chief executive officer of the Thousand Oaks-based biotech firm Amgen Inc. has joined the board of a new think-tank and lobbying group, the California Healthcare Institute.

Biotechnology firms, medical device manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies recently teamed up to establish the statewide institute, which will analyze the health care industry and formulate policy recommendations.

Gordon M. Binder will represent Amgen on the 15-member board.

Among Binder’s top priorities: shaping the state’s response to national health care reform, pushing universities to research health-related issues and finding safe ways to store the low-level radioactive waste that is the byproduct of many medical experiments.

“It’s important for larger companies to be part of something like this to signify that these issues are important to all of us,” Binder said.

The California Healthcare Institute’s first task will be to quantify how much the state’s biomedical and bioscientific firms contribute to the economy.

Preliminary reports indicate that revenues from such firms grew more than 18% last year to nearly $12 billion statewide, according to a spokeswoman for the institute. The group plans to release a more comprehensive study in September.

“The primary thing is to help educate the state and federal governments, and the media, about how to maximize this industry’s contributions to California,” Binder said.