BioPharma

Big Easy seeks to go bigger on biotech

Louisiana leaders tout three expanding companies while pledging $3M to back a struggling biotech incubator in New Orleans as part of an effort to bolster the state's biotech sector. Meanwhile, a private effort to create a life science incubator is underway in the Bay Area.

From L to R:Brad Lambert, Deputy Secretary of Louisiana Economic Development; Quentin Messer, Jr., CEO and President, New Orleans Business Alliance; LaToya Cantrell, Mayor of New Orleans; Dr. Lowry Curley , CEO, AxoSim (podium); Patrick Norton, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Tulane University and Chairman, New Orleans BioInnovation Center; Dr. Trivia Frazier, CEO, Obatala Sciences; and Bill Haack, CEO, Cadex Genomics

Eager to court the biotech industry, political and business leaders in Louisiana on Wednesday lauded a trio of biotech companies that are planning to grow in New Orleans, as well as a plan to shore up the city’s biotech incubator.

Two of the companies– AxoSim and Obatala Sciences – are based in the city. The third, Cadex Genomics, is based in California but contracts with a research lab in the Big Easy.

“We’re grateful that these innovative companies see the benefits of expanding in Louisiana,” Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said in a news release. The Democrat is in the middle of an election run-off against Republican challenger Eddie Rispone. The two candidates have tangled over the state of Louisiana’s economy and business climate.

AxoSim appears to be making the biggest splash. It plans to create 75 jobs at its existing facilities in the New Orleans BioInnovation Center, a biotech incubator originally founded in 2011 but which had reportedly run into financial difficulties. The company makes human-cell-based platforms for neuroscientific research.

“Our innovative technology upends R&D convention by allowing neuroscientists to test new drugs in human systems early in development,” AxoSim CEO Lowry Curley said in a statement.

Obatala Sciences plans to add 10 jobs at its facilities at the University of New Orleans. The company, which had been housed in the BioInnovation Center, makes biotech tools designed to expedite the development of new therapies in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.

Cadex Genomics, meanwhile, is looking forward to expanding its research and development operations in New Orleans, its president and CEO, Bill Haack, said in a phone interview.

Founded in 2018, the company is based in Redwood City, Calif., but its chief science officer, molecular biologist Sudhir Sinha, is based in New Orleans. He oversees a contract lab at the University of New Orleans.

Cadex decided to expand in New Orleans because Sinha wanted to remain there and the company figured it could draw from talent at medical centers operated by Tulane University and Louisiana State University, Haack said.

The company is developing a blood test designed to figure out more quickly than current tests whether treatments are working for cancer patients. Oncologists can use the information to adjust treatment more quickly.

The company expects to launch the test commercially in mid 2020, subject to the completion of clinical studies of its efficacy in patients with lung, breast and colon cancers.

“We think the test will work on all solid tumors,” Haack said, noting that future studies would look at pancreatic, prostate, renal and other cancers. The company’s focus is stage IV tumors. “We certainly think we can help patient outcomes,” he added.

The company raised $1.5 million in seed funding in early 2019 and is in the middle of raising $13 million in Series A funding, Haack said.

The money would go toward converting the contract lab to an in-house lab, Haack said. The company also plans to open a customer support center in Louisiana ahead of the test’s commercialization.

Like other parts of the country, Louisiana is aiming to bolster its biotech industry.

The state economic-development agency, Louisiana Economic Development, said this week it is spending $1.5 million over the next three years to support the BioInnovation Center in collaboration with Tulane and Louisiana State, which are kicking in an additional $1.5 million.

According to local news outlet Nola.com, the center had been struggling financially but the state had committed to preserving it financially.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, a private effort is underway to boost local life science innovation. In September, Stanford University announced that an empty building in Stanford Research Park will become the home of a new life sciences incubator. The goal is to have that 92,000 building with an incubator and lab space function as an anchor for an 85-acre life science district, within the existing Stanford Research Park.  

“The incubator will provide our researchers with resources and access to experts to streamline and speed the translation of groundbreaking discoveries,” said Lloyd Minor, dean of the Stanford University School of Medicine, in an article posted on Stanford University’s website. “Additionally, its close proximity to Stanford’s School of Medicine, two world-class hospitals and the VA will help to realize the promise of bench-to-bedside research.”

Arundhati Parmar contributed to this story. 

Photo: Morgan Stewart, New Orleans Business Alliance

 

 

 

 

 

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