Life Sciences Entrepreneur John Flavin launches Portal Innovations

“There is an increasing pipeline of talent and biomedical innovation emerging from Midwest universities and companies that have the potential to be novel products in the healthcare market. However, entrepreneurs need an ecosystem of strong business and science teams coupled with capital and lab space to move the innovation from proof of concept to commercialization,” said Raju Prasad Ph.D., Senior Biotechnology Equity Research Analyst at William Blair. “Portal is well positioned to successfully address this opportunity.”

Aware of this emerging opportunity in the Midwest, John Flavin created Portal Innovations to seed, build and scale early stage ventures emerging from academic laboratories, companies and innovation hubs.

“The nexus of talent, world-class universities, innovative companies and business incubators here in Illinois make up an entire ecosystem of opportunities that rivals any state in the nation,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “My administration’s five-year blueprint for Illinois’ economy identified life sciences as a key sector that would drive our state’s growth, and I’m excited to see Portal Innovations set up shop in Illinois and build a groundbreaking venture that will keep our state at the forefront of innovation.”

“John’s endeavor is so timely given that Illinois Universities have garnered more than $1 Billion in NIH funding annually for biomedical innovation setting the stage to commercialize more of this breakthrough science,” said Brad Henderson, CEO of P33 Chicago, a private sector led initiative driving global technology leadership for Chicago. “As a region, we’re developing a robust ecosystem with a strong bench of assets and innovators in the life sciences sector – a critical first step in our ability to translate these assets into industry-led commercial viability. ”

To Portal, John brings a strong track record of successful life sciences and medtech senior management experience and innovation expertise in both the start-up and established company setting. Most recently John served as Chief Financial Officer at Endotronix and helped them secure $70 million to fund their pivotal clinical program. In parallel, he cofounded Pyxis Oncology as founding chairman and helped the team raise a $22 million Series A round to launch its novel immuno-oncology antibody drug platform. Over his career, he has co-founded and scaled several life sciences companies as President and CFO including Advanced Life Sciences and MediChem Life Sciences and has also co-founded and led transformative life sciences incubators including MATTER and the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Chicago. John has successfully raised over $345 million of public, private and philanthropic capital including 2 NASDAQ IPOs to fund the development of these impactful organizations.

“John is a prolific company builder. We’re grateful for his contributions over the last 2 years at Endotronix, which include securing our Series D financing and building a strong finance, legal, and accounting leadership team. His efforts have positioned us well to execute our clinical program and move to the next phase,” said Harry Rowland, co-founder and CEO of Endotronix.

About Portal Innovations, LLC

Portal Innovations is building a life sciences, medtech and bioinformatics start-up platform based in Chicago, Illinois. It is bringing together high-performing entrepreneurial teams, global capital and industry partners to accelerate biomedical innovations from discovery through commercial proof of concept. Portal is partnering with Trammell Crow Company to provide state-of-the art shared wet and dry labs for life sciences, medtech and bioinformatics companies. Learn more at www.portalinno.com.

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