Dive Brief:
- Johnson & Johnson opened its first international JLABS facility, an incubator hub, in Toronto, adding to its existing network of five centers in the U.S. A total of 22 companies will be housed at the new site, with capacity for up to 50 companies.
- JLABS is part of J&J Innovation LLC, which aims to boost fosters collaboration between entrepreneurs and J&J's global healthcare business.
- The new 40,000-square-foot facility is a collaboration between J&J Innovation LLC, the government of Ontario, and several Toronto-based hospital partners.
Dive Insight:
The goal of JLABS is to remove the barriers which commonly confront start-ups as they work to move new products into clinical testing.
Incubator companies benefit from the JLABS lab space and access to capital funding experts who are available to support start-up efforts. At the same time, they give J&J an eye into promising early-stage research.
Johnson & Johnson also has JLABS facilities in San Diego, two in San Francisco, Boston, and Houston.
“The expansion of JLABS into Canada helps further Johnson & Johnson Innovation’s mission to discover and advance the best science in the world that has the most potential to help patients and consumers,” said Paul Stoffels, chief scientific officer at J&J.
Some of the companies already signed on include: Biotagenics, a microbiomics company developing therapies for inflammatory bowel disease; KaiGene Pharmaceuticals, working on a treatment to help Alzheimer's patients regain their memories; and Translatum Medicus, which is developing a therapy for dry age-related macular degeneration.