Japanese drugmaker Eisai, which operates a dementia-focused research facility in Cambridge, is hoping to tap into Greater Boston's biotech startup community:

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Monday, February 8, 2021

Bostinno

Eisai, BioLabs launch Cambridge incubator for neurology startups

By: Rowan Walrath

 

Japanese drugmaker Eisai, which operates a dementia-focused research facility in Cambridge, is hoping to tap into Greater Boston's biotech startup community to complement its neurological research and drug development.

Eisai is teaming up with BioLabs — a network of shared laboratory and office spaces that includes Cambridge-based LabCentral — to launch "Eisai Innovation Center BioLabs," an incubator designed to support local startups focused on neurology. The incubator is housed within Eisai's Center for Genetics Guided Dementia Discovery (G2D2), a 50,000-square-foot facility inside the Alewife Research Center that opened in 2019.

"We have accumulated many, years of expertise in developing drugs for neurological indications, and we believe that by having our expertise in the same space, startups can benefit," said Vanessa Almendro Navarro, director of strategy and operations at Eisai's G2D2. "We can bring in companies working in neurology, and we can help those companies build what they need to succeed in medicine creation."

The incubator space is designed to host up to 10 companies, depending on the size of each team, Almendro Navarro said. Eisai will bring in five to seven startups to begin. The facility is home to 23 office spaces and 18 laboratory benches.

The Eisai Innovation Center BioLabs' value proposition to startups is essentially to take care of all operational aspects so the young companies can focus fully on drug discovery and development. The incubator has capabilities for in-vitro biology, molecular and cellular biology, microscopy, chemical and structural biology and screening.

Along with the physical space, startups will be able to access Eisai leadership for advice and mentorship, as well as the drugmaker's venture arm, Eisai Innovation. Almendro Navarro said the initial vision is to incubate startups for about 18 months; after they "graduate" from the incubator, they will remain in the BioLabs network, which spans laboratory centers across the U.S.

Eisai is currently partnered with Cambridge drugmaker Biogen Inc. (Nasdaq: BIIB) on what could become the first FDA-approved drug in decades to treat Alzheimer's disease in the next few months.

Eisai had originally planned to open the incubator in 2020, but those plans were delayed due to Covid-19. However, Nadeem Sarwar, G2D2 president and founder and previously the leader of Eisai's now-closed Andover Innovative Medicines Institute, points out that the pandemic has provided a special opportunity for innovation in neurology, as the ripple effects of Covid-19 have amplified existing inequities in neurological care.

"Now is an extremely important time to be helping new companies launch and grow in the neurology space. I think Covid highlighted a disproportionate impact," Sarwar said. "There's an urgent need for innovation in this space."

 

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