The Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center (PABC), a nonprofit life science incubator, has launched an innovative sponsorship program designed to provide support and services to help meet the needs of early stage biotech companies. The program was created by and is being administered for PABC by Hatch Biofund Management, operators of an early stage life sciences venture fund formed as a companion fund to the PABC.
 
PABC was recently acknowledged in an International Business Innovation Association study as one of the most successful biotech incubators in the country.
 
Hatch has identified over 40 categories of both business and drug development services that start-up pharmaceutical companies need to grow and prosper, including in areas such legal services, pharmaceutical packaging and more. Partners in each of these categories are invited to join the PABC program as exclusive sponsors, providing preferred supplier services, education, collaboration and support. The Strategic Sponsors will have direct access to both the companies in the Doylestown PABC Incubator, as well as the new Unite IQ incubator that PABC will manage at The Discovery Labs in King of Prussia, PA. The Discovery Labs campus facilitates the commercialization of novel therapies by including both the Unite IQ Incubator and The Center for Breakthrough Medicines, an advanced therapeutics CDMO providing an end to end solution for scientists.
 
“A novel concept to be employed in the program is the creation of what we are calling the Sponsors Village,” said Vlad Walko, chief executive officer, Hatch. “As part of the membership, PABC will provide a permanent office to sponsors in an office community being created next to the Incubator at Discovery Labs. There, the sponsors will offer scheduled hours, interface daily with the early stage companies, and become part of the ecosystem. At this site, sponsors will not only witness the birth of the new cell and gene therapy industry in Philadelphia, but also gain an opportunity to create new products and services as the industry evolves.”
 
Sponsors will also regularly visit the Doylestown site at PABC, where they will have shared office space and conference rooms to meet with more established companies in the incubator, many of which focus on oncology.
 
“Since each category of sponsorship is exclusive, instead of competing with each other, these companies will collaborate,” said Tim Block, founder and chief executive officer, PABC. “They can share leads, co-develop product offerings, and gain insights into how to enter and serve the pharma industry from the point of inception. We believe we are creating something totally unique and innovative in the industry. Our hope is to continue to lead the U.S. by being an example for how young Biotech firms should be nurtured.”
 
Lou Kassa, chief operations officer, PABC, said, “We already have our first group of sponsors signed up, including companies such as Citibank, West Pharmaceutical Services, Wilson Sonsini, Alcami, Zero to Five and others. We expect our village to be full later this year, given the significant value a sponsor can get out of the program.”
 
Graham Reynolds, vice president, West Pharma Services, said, “West is pleased to be a sponsor of this exciting venture; we see it as an opportunity to expand our contacts to early-stage biotech companies, help them on their journey, and provide integrated solutions for drug containment and delivery. It’s also an opportunity for us to learn how to serve these breakthrough technologies, and to be part of improving the lives of patients.”
 
Alongside the Strategic Sponsorship Program, PABC began raising a new venture fund late last year, Hatch Biofund, to provide seed and early stage A/B funding to companies in their PABC incubators.
 
Mr. Kassa added, “We have so much to offer emerging CGT and Biotech companies in our two incubators and in the Philadelphia region in general. I think we will soon see a migration in Biotech occur from Boston and San Francisco, to our new Philadelphia Hub.”
 
Audrey Greenberg, co-founder of The Discovery Labs, said, “Partnering with PABC in the Unite IQ Incubator provides a comprehensive solution for advanced therapy developers to expedite the process of getting patients the products they so desperately need.”
 
For more information on Hatch Biofund, visit https://hatchbiofund.com/. For more information on The Discovery Labs, visit https://thediscoverylabs.com/.