March 7, 2016
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Bristol-Myers Squibb signed a deal with LabCentral to support the launch of two new life sciences and biotech companies in Kendall Square, the hub of the Boston-area pharmaceutical industry, through a “golden ticket” method, the company announced this morning.
Under the agreement with LabCentral, a shared laboratory space designed to launch startups, Bristol-Myers Squibb can nominate up to two startup companies annually to take up residence in LabCentral’s Kendall Square space. Bristol-Myers Squibb anticipates nominating its first two companies for 2016 by the end of the first quarter, the company said in a statement. LabCentral’s golden ticket represents one underwritten bench space per year for one scientist at LabCentral and a priority spot on the waiting list, the company said in a statement. Although space is limited, golden ticket recipients would benefit from the proximity to other researchers in the LabCentral space, as well as the surrounding Kendall Square area.
Carl Decicco, head of discovery at Bristol-Myers Squibb, said the company’s sponsorship of these startups “naturally aligns with our focus on accelerating the discovery and development of potentially transformational medicines for patients with serious diseases.” By putting the startups in Kendall Square, Decicco said it will place those new companies in “one of the most vibrant ecosystems of world class science, innovation and entrepreneurship.”
Johannes Fruehauf, president of LabCentral, said the space provided to startups fills a need to help new therapies get off the ground and creates a “supportive environment for nascent companies.”
“Our residents who are working to move early-stage science from the lab bench toward clinical trials stand to gain valuable insights from regular interactions with Bristol-Myers Squibb mentors who are veterans of the process. But we believe it’s a symbiotic relationship; this partnership will enable Bristol-Myers Squibb to benefit from proximity and better access to our entrepreneurs as well as LabCentral alumni and others working in some of the region’s most exciting life-sciences startups,” Fruehauf said in a statement.
Bristol-Myers Squibb is not the only company to sponsor startup incubators. Janssen, a division of Johnson & Johnson , has set up its JLABS incubator sites that focus on early stage bio/pharmaceutical, medical device, consumer, and digital health programs. JLABS is part of Johnson & Johnson’s external R&D arm. The program provides a “capital-efficient, resource-rich environment where emerging companies can transform the scientific discoveries of today into the breakthrough healthcare products of tomorrow,” according to the JLABS website.
In addition to the companies that Bristol-Myers Squibb will sponsor at LabCentral, the company is in the process of setting up its own state-of-the-art research facility in Kendall Square. Bristol-Myers Squibb’s new site is expected to be open in early 2018.
Cambridge’s Kendall Square area, which makes up approximately one square mile, is packed with biotechs. In May, Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Company announced it will build a new drug delivery and device innovation center, the Lilly Cambridge Innovation Center, in Kendall Square. In April, , headquartered in Thousand Oaks, Calif., announced it was going to expand its presence in its Cambridge facilities, as well as in South San Francisco, part of a 100-person staff expansion.
One of the reasons for the greater Boston area becoming such a major hub in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries is the plethora of research universities in the area. Boston also has one of the highest educated workforces in the nation. Not only are smaller companies calling the Boston area home, but many larger and established pharmaceutical companies, such as GlaxoSmithKline , Takeda Pharmaceuticals , Sanofi , Biogen Idec, Inc. and Novartis AG (NVS) have presences in the city. The close proximity of so many pharmaceutical and university laboratories provides researchers and scientists easy access to research and building partnerships between companies.
