The Prince Edward Island BioAlliance has unveiled the new “farms to pharma” incubator that it’s launching with funding from the National Research Council’s Canadian Accelerator and Incubator Program.
Emergence is an incubator designed to help nurture the PEI cluster of biotech and food-tech companies, as well as others in the region. It will not feature intense cohorts like the modern tech accelerator but will offer long-term assistance to companies to help them develop over the long-haul.
“This is not a bootcamp model at all because it recognizes that company development t in this space is a multi-year process,” said BioAlliance CEO Rory Francis in an interview in his Charlottetown office.
The NRC earlier this year announced CAIP funding for incubators and accelerators across the country, and the winners included two Atlantic Canadian groups: The P.E.I. BioAlliance, which focuses on life sciences; and New Brunswick-based Propel, whose concentration is in IT. The New Brunswick organization has since launched Propel 2.0, expanding the intake of each cohort from between six and 10 companies to the current 24 companies.
On Wednesday, the BioAlliance outlined the structure and funding of Emergence, which will be a five-year project that could receive more than $7 million. The NRC will contribute up to $3.8 million, while Innovation P.E.I. will kick in $500,000. The companies participating in the program will put up a total of $1.3 million, and the remainder will come from the P.E.I.Agri-Alliance and farm community.
“This was a highly competitive process, and being named as one of the best incubator organizations in Canada is certainly rewarding,” Russ Kerr, CEO of Nautilus Biosciences and Chair of the BioAlliance Board, said in a statement. “But more importantly, this initiative will support local entrepreneurs and the growth of our early-stage companies while attracting businesses, technologies and talent from other parts of the world.”
Francis said the incubator will focus on growing the “P.E.I. cluster” of life sciences companies, which now stands at about 40 enterprises. Francis stressed that he hopes the cluster will include companies based in other parts of Atlantic Canada, and outside the region. He is looking for companies that fit into the prevalent markets and skills that constitute the island’s strengths.
The P.E.I. cluster has focused largely on animal health and over-the-counter products with aim of devising a healthy stable of life sciences companies that don’t have to spend years and hundreds of millions of dollars on regulatory approval.
The incubator will not have a physical headquarters but will be a program to help companies develop and sell their products. There will be a selection process, after which the organizers will identify and correct the “gaps” in each company’s business competency. Once the Emergence organizers identify what skills and resources a company needs to succeed, they will work to make sure the enterprise gets them.
Francis said the BioAlliance will continue to gauge its success based on select metrics, such as number of companies, total employment and private sector revenue. The goal is to double the number of companies in five years. Private sector revenue stood at $150 million in 2013 and Francis wants it to rise to $200 million or more by 2019.
The P.E.I. Biotech sector now employs more than 1,200 people in private and public sectors.
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