>> welcome to everyone. we thank you all for coming for the opening day celebration of the new cap. or kept as of the new corporate headquarters. i'm honored to introduce the speakers today, who will be making opening remarks. we are also especially pleased to have with us san francisco mayor and lieutenant governor elect gavin newsom. after the speaking portion, we will have a former unveiling of the new sign, after which we will move inside for a champagne

toast and food and drinks. a number of scientists are here. with that said, i am pleased to hand the podium over to the nectar president and ceo, howard w. robbins. [applause] >> thank you. thank you. thank you, jennifer. it is great to see everyone. obviously, we're very proud of our new facility. that is a state of the art facility, 100,000-plus square feet of some of the finest research labs in the u.s., and it will really allow us to expand our groundbreaking work in the areas of oncology and pain, some areas that need help from our patients. if we bring great drugs to our patients and families through the work we do in this building,

i think it will have an enormous benefit for everyone. this is not a business. this is not the it industry for the faint of heart. enormous amounts of risk have to be taken in the biotech industry, enormous amounts of human capital and economic capital have to go into building and developing new drugs. it would have a facility that is this content -- when you have a facility that is this competent and well executed, it will work very well. we have been around a number of years and it has evolved into a different company the last three, four years. we're focused entirely on chemistry and how we can apply that to drugs for cancer and pain. we have been very successful. the pipeline of over 25 drug candidates at various stages of development, and if you look at how we have progressed as a company in biotech, we're probably in the top 20 biotech

companies. i think we have made enormous progress, and that comes from the work of our employees. the companies are not based on their technology. companies are not based on their buildings, as a boat as they are. it they are built on that the employees, how hard they work, how loyal they are, how dedicated they are, and what kind of brain power and value they bring to the company. i think we have some of the finest scientists and business people in the bay area working for us and i am very proud of their buddy who has helped us achieve this enormous accomplishment. i want to think a number of people specifically. i want to thank alexandria properties for allowing us to get this building, the architects, the builders for a spectacular job. the project management for door and a great job keeping everything on track. and i want to thank the actor core team for doing the entire

interior design, robert for handling the facility management itself, belly for assisting robert and working on all the different aspects -- billy for assisting robert and working on all the different aspects. john cummings for all the work they did it in the computer area and the i.t. design, and elizabeth for making sure we stayed on budget. and we did. everybody did a tremendous job. it is an example of how the employees of nectar have excelled at allow us to have this as bardeau. -- as our new home. most importantly, i think mayor newsom for all the work he has done in bringing nectar to this site. if i go back a number of years, when i was a ceo of another company, mayor newsom called me company, mayor newsom called me up and said you really shou