Growing Up And Out At MBI | Worcester's biotech incubator cares for the small and helps them thrive
Photo/Edd Cote
Dennis L. Guberski, president and chairman of Biomedical Research Models Inc. in Worcester, one of several companies that has benefited from the Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives incubator program.
One company creates genetically engineered animals for drug research, another works on a new drug delivery technology for Gaucher’s Disease and another came up with a proprietary platform for making pharmaceutical grade therapeutic cells.
Aside from all three being biotechnology companies, what else do these firms have in common? They’re all successful graduates from Massachusetts Biomedical Initiative business incubators in Worcester, and have gone on to thrive at other locations in the city or state.
Proud Grads
Just as successful students graduate from college, successful companies move on once they grow more complex and become more financially successful. And each company has its own unique story to tell.
Of course not everyone graduates. There are six companies that have folded during the eight years since the incubator’s founding, and another two were already in existence when they landed at one of the MBI incubators.
And success comes in varying degrees. Some companies, like ViaCell got purchased by Perkin Elmer for $300 million as did Coley Pharmaceuticals Group, which was sold to Pfizer for $164 million.
There is also everything in between, from those who started out with a company, like Glucadel, then reverted to a consultancy to others like NOMIR Medical Technologies that have grown and moved out to Waltham.
Since 2000 through the middle of this year, 29 companies have been tenants and have now moved on. Twenty-one of them began at MBI before growing and eventually moving out. Another six companies went out of business. The three incubators located at Gateway Park, One Innovation Drive and 100 Barber Ave. now have a combined 18 tenants, with turnover usually between three to four companies a year.
Scorecard
The 21 successful graduates translates to an 80 percent success rate, which exceeds the 50 percent goal that MBI set for itself when it began the incubators in 2000.
“It’s really huge when you think about the merry band of men and women who started this process years ago. They had two factors they believed would help them be successful: the medical, veterinary and engineering colleges and universities in the Worcester area and the fact that we are only 45 miles from the epicenter of the world for biotechnology in Kendall Square,” said Kevin O’Sullivan, MBI’s president and chief executive officer.
He was referring to the work in the mid-1980s of the Worcester Business Development Corp., which physically developed the Massachusetts Biotechnology Research Park. MBI was the eventual organization that began creating incubators after tackling biotechnology education and technology transfer from academia to the private sector.
Incubators are certainly not a new concept, with the very first one in the U.S. opening in 1959 in Batavia, N.Y., offering early-stage companies business assistance services in shared facilities. Incubators didn’t really become popular until the mid-1980s, when the U.S. Small Business Administration began promoting them through conferences and handbooks, according to the National Business Incubator Association based in Ohio. From 12 incubators in 1980 in North America, as of October 2006, there were 1,400 incubators, of which 1,115 are in the U.S.
MBI currently has 18 tenants in its three incubators, which have 84 employees between them and an annual economic impact on the Worcester area of $11.3 million, according to O’Sullivan. And it has a prospect list of 24 life science entrepreneurs who have shown interest in locating at MBI.
Click one of the links below to learn about some of the MBI success stories:
Biomedical Research Models
NOMIR Medical Technologies (WBJournal.com exclusive)
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments