Johnson & Johnson Innovation expands global incubator presence to Israel
Also announces multiple, early-stage collaborations with academia and biotech
Johnson & Johnson Innovation is expanding its global incubator presence through a novel collaboration with the Office of the Chief Scientist in Israel and other industry partners to establish a new biotechnology incubator near Israel’s Weizmann Science Park.
In addition, the company has formed several new collaborations with academia and biotech that focus on multiple disease areas and consumer healthcare challenges. These agreements are part of the company's strategy to support an international network of scientific entrepreneurs through access to high-quality laboratory facilities, scientific expertise, and funding.
The new research and development collaborations span Europe and the US and include the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and seven biotechnology companies: California-based Assembly Pharmaceuticals, Nodality and SutroVax; London-based TopiVert; Maryland-based Intrexon; Massachusetts-based Scholar Rock; and Netherlands-based Bioceros.
Paul Stoffels, Chief Scientific Officer and Worldwide Chairman, Pharmaceuticals at Johnson & Johnson, said: 'Addressing today’s unmet medical needs requires accessing the best science in the world and the best minds in the world working on it.
'Johnson & Johnson Innovation is proud to be working with many partners to accelerate the pace of innovation on behalf of patients and consumers, and to unleash the creativity and entrepreneurship of scientists to solve today’s healthcare problems.'
Johnson & Johnson Innovation is proud to be working with many partners to accelerate the pace of innovation
The new biotechnology incubator, which will be operational in early 2014, is the latest in a series of recently announced collaborations with other biotechnology incubators to fuel entrepreneurship, including Montreal-based NEOMED; Toronto-based MaRS Innovation; San Francisco-based California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3); and Boston-based LabCentral.
'Through our customised deals and incubator strategy, we are collaborating with the world’s best innovators and academia to discover and develop the next generation of breakthrough medical solutions,' said Diego Miralles, Head of Johnson & Johnson Innovation, California and Global Head Innovation, Janssen Pharmaceuticals.
Johnson & Johnson Innovation officially opened its innovation centres a little more than a year ago, establishing four regional hubs to identify scientific opportunities with the potential to advance the development of new healthcare solutions.
Today, there are three fully operational offices in Boston, London, and California, and a fourth location in Shanghai now houses a few scientific experts and will officially open this year.
'An exciting and common factor for many of the collaborations we announced today is how we are working together to leverage our collective and deep knowledge about specific biologic pathways and disease areas,' said Robert Urban, Head of Johnson & Johnson Innovation, Boston. 'This approach offers the potential to make strong research decisions that can ultimately support company and programme success.'