The BioAccelerate NYC Prize, billed in its announcement as “the first citywide competition targeting commercialization of the extensive biomedical research conducted at universities and research institutions in New York City,” has been launched by The New York City Investment Fund and the New York Economic Development Corporation. The goal of BioAccelerate, the sponsors explain, is to help bridge the ‘Valley of Death’ funding challenge faced by start-ups. The competition is looking to fund translational research related to therapeutics, devices and diagnostics that can direct clinical care. As a key part of its evaluation, BioAccelerate NYC will consider the commercial market potential based on: 1) whether the technology would be able to attract venture or other commercial capital, assuming this translational funding produced positive results; and 2) whether the technology could support the growth of an independent enterprise over time. Each winner will receive as much as $250,000, says Maria Gotsch, MBA, President and CEO of the New York City Investment Fund. “Ideally, we will pick five great companies,” she says.

BioAccelerate is just the most recent effort in a three-pronged approach to growing the commercial bioscience industry in New York City, explains Gotsch. The fund, she notes, was established in 1996-97, spearheaded by Henry Kravitz of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. One of the fund’s major initiatives, she continues, has been to build the city’s commercial bioscience industry. “We did a study about 10 years ago and concluded that there was a huge, huge base of biomedical research here, but we were not capitalizing on it,” Gotsch recalls. “To the extent that start-ups were spun out of universities, they typically went somewhere else.”

The fund identified three key needs: Space, capital, and management. Space was addressed first, says Gotsch. “We worked closely with the city, and we’re in the initial phase of New York City’s first major life science commercial office park, with ImClone Systems as the anchor,” she reports. The project, called East River Science Park, is located just south of NYU Medical School on city-owned land and will have one million square feet when it is built out. “We worked to push it forward in several ways,” Gotsch says. “For example, the New York City Biotech Initiative, whose site is run jointly with the New York City Economic Development Corporation, catalogues all the resources in New York City, and shows how we rank against other places seen as bioscience centers.” Gotsch notes that “when we looked at any metric — NIH dollars, award winners, and so on — we were either one, two, or three; but we had no commercial sector. We had science, and late-stage money, but companies were lacking other resources.” A detailed article on BioAccelerate appears in the December 2009 issue of Intellectual Property Marketing Advisor. For subscription information, CLICK HERE.

Posted December 8th, 2009 under Intellectual Property Marketing

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