October 23, 2014
By Mark Terry, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
Johnson & Johnson announced today that it plans to expand its network of biopharma and life science incubators into Texas by creating a new facility to host up to 50 local biotech startups in Houston.
The facility is expected to open by late 2015 and is located within the Innovation Institute at Houston’s Texas Medical Center (TMC). It will be 30,000 square feet of office and laboratory space. Formerly Janssen Labs, the J&J incubator is now dubbed J-Labs.
J&J runs similar programs in San Diego and Boston. “In the markets we’ve been in already, there’s a ton of great research but also a history of entrepreneurship,” says Melinda Richter, head of J-Labs in San Francisco in an Xconomy article. “In Houston, there’s such a depth and breadth of research here—talented scientists, big-dollar amounts in grant funding. But this area has not reached its translational success potential.”
J-Labs expects to assist startups in bridging the gap between research and development and commercialization.
Earlier in the month the Texas Medical Center announced its own life science accelerator, which will be headquarters in a former Nabisco cookie factor in Houston. “We’re going to open in October the country’s largest life sciences accelerator for taking startups and helping shepherd them through” the commercialization process, said Bobby Robbins, TMC’s president and CEO at a meeting at the Hotel Lodging Association of Greater Houston.
Richter said that “the TMC accelerator will be a feeder into our incubator. We’ve started talking about the companies they are looking at already.”
J-Labs plans to begin accepting applications today. J-Labs facilities generally have common business and research areas, as well as areas for chemistry, tissue culture and wet labs. J-Labs handles administrative duties, equipment and inventory so that the startups can focus on the science. Companies accepted pay rent, but benefit from mentoring and access to life science investors as well as J&J. The deals with J&J and J-Labs do not tie the startups to J&J, do not require equity deals or options. They are free to negotiate deals with whatever companies they can.
“As one of the top global biotechnology clusters, and home to the Texas Medical Center, the largest medical center in the world, Houston is a flourishing life science hub in which we see great potential for an incubator to enable the talented scientists in the region to take their innovation to the next level,” Richter said in a statement. “The continued demand for our J-Labs model fueled our decision to expand with J-Labs @TMC, which furthers our goal of helping entrepreneurs advance science with the potential to become transformational solutions for patients.”
