March 3, 2015
By Riley McDermid, BioSpace.com Breaking News Sr. Editor
Johnson & Johnson’s new 30,000 square foot life science incubator, JLABS @South San Francisco, will eventually accommodate up to 50 life science startups in the Bay Area and hopes to spark an “innovation revolution” across the region, Melinda Richter, head of Johnson & Johnson Innovation, JLABS, told BioSpace at CALBIO 2015 exclusively on Tuesday.
“We look forward to building relationships with innovators in the region and filling JLABS @SSF with cutting-edge startups across the healthcare spectrum, as well as kicking off our education events at the site,” Richter told BioSpace in an interview. “In addition, we are also always continuously evaluating additional life science hubs that may be a good fit for the JLABS model, in order to enable more entrepreneurs to gain access to the resources of JLABS.”
The latest addition to the Johnson & Johnson Innovation family was hatched several years ago and is a sign that the industry is moving quickly to bring hot new life sciences startups directly into the experimental and funding models that had long been monopolized by larger, better connected early-stage companies.
The new South San Francisco location will house five companies to begin with: Applied Molecular Transport (AMT), which focuses on therapies for immune-mediated inflammation and metabolic diseases; Audentes Therapeutics, which is developing new treatments rare diseases through gene therapy technology; Cortexyme, an Alzheimer’s and other disorders of aging company; and MiNDERA, which is creating non-invasive skin tests to help aid in the diagnosis of skin cancer and other skin diseases.
AMT also recently formed collaboration with Johnson & Johnson Innovation, California, and will be conducting the work associated with that collaboration at this site.
“With the addition of the five residents and five Quick Fire challenge winners, we are now home to over 80 companies across our four active sites, and we look forward to continuing to expand the JLABS model to additional life science hubs and enable more entrepreneurs to gain access to the resources of JLABS,” Richter said.
“We have seen extraordinary demand for our JLABS model across all existing sites, which speaks to the need for resources that support early stage innovation, especially at the point when moving from concept to commercialization,” she said.
The new ultramodern, high-tech site in South San Francisco is just one more sign that Big Pharma is continuing to “get small to think big,” as Ken Drazan, director of Johnson & Johnson’s Innovation Center in California, said in October. Richter told BioSpace she is pleased that JNJ’s innovative approach has caught on so quickly, particularly since it has only been three years since the first facility opened in San Diego.
“Johnson & Johnson Innovation started off as an experiment that was a completely new approach to external innovation, and we are pleased at the success we have achieved in a relatively short amount of time,” said Richter.
“Since JLABS opened its flagship facility in San Diego in early 2012, we have launched three additional locations: two in the Bay Area (JLABS @QB3 and JLABS @SSF), and another in Boston (JLABS @LabCentral),” she added. “We also have announced plans to establish an incubator in Houston at the Texas Medical Center’s Innovation Institute (JLABS @TMC), which will open in early 2016.”
