New York’s been doing a considerable amount to boost its profile on the map of life science hubs across the country, but this week was especially busy.
Mount Sinai is establishing an Institute of Technology with $5 million in funding from New York Economic Development Corp. to transform biomedicine through discovery and development of technology-based solutions for unmet healthcare needs, particularly with an eye to healthcare reform, according to a statement from Mount Sinai.
The school will be organized around three focus areas:
- Digital health, including mobile health, wireless health, big data, cloud computing, social networking, as well as scientific and clinical simulation
- Biotech, including tissue engineering, sensors, robotics, microfluidics, and nanomedicine
- Pharma, including drug repurposing and drug delivery
A $100 million fund to seed 15 to 20 biotech startups is being raised by the New York Economic Development Corp. Celgene and Eli Lilly and GE Ventures are providing $40 million in anchor funding. The development corporation also is looking for a venture capital firm to run the fund and invest $50 million. NYEDC is investing $10 million.
Harlem Biospace has listed the startup biotech companies in its incubator space.
About 16 biotechnology companies have opened offices since it opened in November as part of an effort to stimulate New York’s life science community. Here’s a summary of 10 of them.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
AfriVax is a contract research company that researches, tests, and manufactures biopharmaceutical products using molecular technologies. It uses bioinformatics and protein expression technologies to develop gene-based products such as vaccines and therapeutic proteins. Eluemuno Richard Blyden is the CEO.
CytoDel: Botulinum neurotoxins that have helped make Botox into a big brand for Allergan are the subject of CytoDel’s two patents. One patent is about drug delivery to inside neurons, such as an antidote for botulism for biodefense. The other will focus on off-label indications for botox-like pharmaceuticals for such things as cerebral palsy. Drs Philip Band, Edwin Vazquez-Cintron and Konstantin Ichtchenko are the co-inventors of the CytoDel platform. Catherine Banat, Band, Vazquez-Cintron and Ichtchenko are the co-founders.
Dual Therapeutics: The oncology startup is working on small molecule activators for the tumor suppressor protein phosphatase 2A. They block growth and survival pathways driving multiple cancers including prostate, lung, and acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The technology was licensed from Mount Sinai Medical Center. Michael Ohlmeyer, Dr. Goutham Narla and Dr. Matthew Galsky are the co-founders.
ExVivo Dynamics wants to reduce complications from blood transfusions with a filter designed to remove damaged erythrocytes from the blood before transfusion. Alan Perlstein is the founder and CEO.
Immunovent is developing an allergy diagnostic — the Local Allergy Mucosal Brush test. The company claims it can accurately diagnose airborne and food allergies that are currently undetected by traditional allergy testing methods. Erick Berglund is the CEO.
Junco Labs is developing handheld lab-on-a-chip devices to do rapid and inexpensive diagnostic tests at the bedside.
Multimodal Solutions: Michael Isaacman is the founder of the company to develop an emerging biotechnology company focused on developing oral therapeutics to treat disease.
Rho Nanodiagnostics is developing minimally invasive therapies for osteoarthritis using molecules to stimulate cartilage cell growth. Orthopedic surgeons Erica Rowe Urquhart and Marc Urquhart founded the company.
Symbiotic Health: Delivering fecal matter in oral medication form as a treatment for guts teeming with C difficile bacteria sounds like an extraordinary remedy. But Symbiotic Health is working with Bruce Hirsch, an infectious disease specialist at North Shore University Hospital in Long Island, who developed said pill, to take his technology to a broader market.
Tirgan Biopharmaceuticals is developing a treatment for Keloid disorder — abnormal growth of scar tissue. Dr Michael Tirgan is the company’s founder.
