Pa. biotech center expands with ‘entrepreneur wing’
Philadelphia Business Journal - by John George Staff Writer
DOYLESTOWN — The Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center of Bucks County is expanding again, converting unused space in the back of its facility into a 5,000-square-foot “entrepreneur wing.”
The $1.4 million project will turn that space into one teaching lab and eight laboratories for entrepreneurs.
“Our intention is to accommodate the growth of the biotech and bio-informatic companies hat have been developed here over the past 18 months,” said Dr. Timothy Block, president of the center.
Construction is expected to be completed in April.
The major funding source for the expansion is the Institute for Hepatitis and Virus Research, the research arm of the Hepatitis B Foundation, and a $200,000 state of Pennsylvania Keystone Innovation Zone grant secured by the institute. The grant will be used to establish a teaching lab for the institute.
The $14 million biotech center was created by the Hepatitis B Foundation in 2006 as an education facility, research site and biotech incubator in a partnership with Delaware Valley College. It is housed in the former D.A. Lewis printing and distribution company warehouse, which is now home to 31 tenants including more than two dozen biotechnology and medical-device startups.
The companies that will occupy the entrepreneur wing include: ALS Biopharma, which is developing new treatments for Lou Gehrig’s disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis); Advanced Neural Dynamics, which is focused on therapies for neurological disease; and Immunotope, which is developing new ways to diagnose, treat and prevent cancer.
Other tenants for the wing are ReniGuard Life Systems, which is working on urine-based diagnostic tests for viral diseases and cancer; Russell Biotech, which is developing products and technology for separating biological materials; and Thermimunex Pharmaceuticals, which is attempting to commercialize a new class of anti-infective drugs.
State Sen. Chuck McIlhinney, R-Bucks, called the biotechnology center a “great example of a Bucks County success story.”
“An empty warehouse that had lost more than 130 jobs,” McIlhinney said, “has been converted into a thriving biotechnology center that is now home to more than 200 jobs and growing, all in one of the toughest economic times in our lives.”
The center, part of the Bucks County Keystone Innovation Zone, expanded before when it acquired an adjacent building in 2008. It now encompasses 110,000 square feet on a 10-acre campus. (Keystone Innovation Zones established by the state offer tax breaks and special services — including guidance for grant writing, business planning and intellectual property issues — to companies that locate within their boundaries.)
An economic impact study conducted last year determined the center has generated $164.7 million for the region’s economy.
Block said the need for additional labs grew out of the success of the center’s “Who wants to be an entrepreneur program?” that invited scientists looking to start their own companies to apply for a total of $1.6 million in funding over two years. Funding for the program came from a $815,342 federal Economic Development Administration grant to support technical assistance, training and biotechnology pre-incubator operational activities at the center, and from the Institute for Hepatitis and Virus Research.
The center selected an initial group of five researchers for the program, but ended up making room for a total of nine would-be entrepreneurs.
“We promised them if they were successful in getting funding, whether it was an SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) grant or angel funding or from sales, we’d get them lab space,” Block said. “I didn’t think all nine would be successful, but they were.”
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