Dive Brief:
- Alexandria LaunchLabs, a 15,000-square foot, fully outfitted biotech R&D facility in the Alexandria Center for Life Science in New York, is slated to open in summer 2017 thanks to $25 million in seed funding from Alexandria Venture Investments.
- Several high-profile companies already have a presence in the center, including Roche, Pfizer and Cellectis.
- The facility operator is accepting applications for biotech start-ups looking for seed funding and space. The goal is to house 25 to 40 biotechs with seed funding of $50,000 to $1 million. Each company will pay $1,995 per month.
Dive Insight:
Last October, Eli Lilly made headlines when it expanded its lab presence at the center to focus on immuno-oncology--related R&D. Its 30,000 square-foot build-out of its lab and office space also allowed it to expand its workforce.
Now, Alexandria Real Estate Equities is looking to open up that opportunity to smaller biotechs, with support from the city's Economic Development Corp. Biotech is an attractive industry for New York, but issues related to space and access have sytmied efforts to more fully build up the industry.
However, given the rich academic infrastructure and the proliferation of academic medical research going on in the New York area, locating companies in the same space makes sense and represents a huge opportunity.