Johnson & Johnson Innovation announced that it is expanding its global incubator presence through a novel collaboration with the Office of the Chief Scientist in Israel and other industry partners to establish a new biotechnology incubator near Israel’s Weizmann Science Park. This is the latest in a series of recently announced collaborations to fuel entrepreneurship in the world’s scientific hotspots.In addition, Johnson & Johnson Innovation announced several new collaborations with academia and biotech that focus on multiple disease areas and consumer healthcare challenges. These customized collaborations are part of Johnson & Johnson Innovation’s strategy to support an international network of scientific entrepreneurs through access to best-in-class laboratory facilities, scientific expertise and funding.
The new research and development collaborations span Europe and the United States and include the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, as well as seven biotechnology companies: California-based Assembly Pharmaceuticals, Nodality and SutroVax; London-based TopiVert; Maryland-based Intrexon; Massachusetts-based Scholar Rock; and Netherlands-based Bioceros.
“Addressing today’s unmet medical needs requires accessing the best science in the world and the best minds in the world working on it,” said Paul Stoffels, chief scientific officer and Worldwide Chairman, Pharmaceuticals, Johnson & Johnson. “Johnson & Johnson Innovation is proud to be working with many partners to accelerate the pace of innovation on behalf of patients and consumers, and to unleash the creativity and entrepreneurship of scientists to solve today’s healthcare problems.”
Expanding global incubator presence to Israel
An outcome of a novel collaboration among Johnson & Johnson Innovation and Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation (JJDC), the Office of the Chief Scientist in Israel, Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., and OrbiMed Israel Partners, is a public-private biotechnology incubator that will be located near the Weizmann Science Park, Rehovot, Israel. The Weizmann Science Park area is considered to be one of the foremost centers in the world for multidisciplinary research, and is the location of a Johnson & Johnson Innovation satellite office.
“A key aim of Johnson & Johnson Innovation is to find novel ways of advancing the most promising early-stage science,” said Patrick Verheyen, Head of Johnson & Johnson Innovation, London. “The formation of the new biotechnology incubator in Israel is the product of an important collaboration between government, industry, and venture capital that demonstrates a multi-partner approach in practice. The collaboration provides a unique platform to support and advance new companies with not only funding, but also strategic advice from both venture capital and industry pharmaceutical development experts.”
The new incubator, which will be operational in early 2014, is the latest in a series of recently announced collaborations with other biotechnology incubators to fuel entrepreneurship, including Montreal-based NEOMED; Toronto-based MaRS Innovation; San Francisco-based California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3); and Boston-based LabCentral. These announcements build upon the growing success of Janssen Labs, the 40,000 square foot flagship facility that opened in early 2012 in San Diego at Janssen’s West Coast Research Center.
New and customized early stage collaborations
The eight new early stage collaborations announced represent recent deals closed by the Boston, California, and London innovation centers that are forging important research and development alliances across Johnson & Johnson’s three business areas: Consumer; Medical Devices & Diagnostics; and Pharmaceuticals.
“Through our customized deals and incubator strategy, we are collaborating with the world’s best innovators and academia to discover and develop the next generation of breakthrough medical solutions,” said Diego Miralles, head of Johnson & Johnson Innovation, California and global head Innovation, Janssen Pharmaceuticals.
Johnson & Johnson Innovation officially opened its innovation centers a little more than a year ago, establishing four regional hubs to identify scientific opportunities with the potential to advance the development of new healthcare solutions.
Today, there are three fully operational offices in Boston, London and California, and a fourth location in Shanghai now houses a few scientific experts and will officially open this year.
“An exciting and common factor for many of the collaborations we announced today is how we are working together to leverage our collective and deep knowledge about specific biologic pathways and disease areas,” said Robert Urban, Head of Johnson & Johnson Innovation, Boston. “This approach offers the potential to make strong research decisions that can ultimately support company and program success.”
Date: January 8, 2013
Source: Johnson and Johnson Innovation
Filed Under: Drug Discovery
