Penn connects to J&J for healthcare scheme

University of Pennsylvania has teamed up with pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson to launch a networking hub for the university’s healthcare innovation ecosystem.

The facility, named JPod @ Philadelphia, will operate in partnership with Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, the firm’s corporate venturing division, as well as its JLabs incubator.

Johnson & Johnson also plans to open another JPod collaboration with University of Alberta, according to the Inquirer.

The JPod initiative aims to confront business, financial and operational barriers to healthcare commercialisation, with potential benefits for medical device, pharmaceutical and consumer-facing health technologies.

Penn’s JPod is expected to open in autumn 2018 at the university’s Pennovation Works incubator facility. Pennovation Works currently hosts the Penn-backed PCI Ventures fund and offers operational space for 85 companies.

JPods will feature a secure telecoms line to connect researchers with representatives from Johnson & Johnson.  It will act as a lower-level equivalent of fully-fledged JLabs based in venture capital epicentres such as San Francisco and Shanghai.

Johnson & Johnson will use the initiative to identify promising ideas that could use greater support, helping Penn researchers shore up investment and networking opportunities. The hub will run a competition called QuickFire Challenge with rewards for the best breakthroughs.

The news adds to Pennsylvania’s commercialisation activity after the launch of a $50m co-investment pilot that will back 10 local biotech developers over three years.

Roy Rosin, chief innovation officer at Penn Medicine, said: “Entrepreneurs can access and benefit from the deeper resources located internationally, and if Johnson & Johnson sees something they like, which is now far more likely, additional investment and engagement can follow.

“When you are confident in what you are bringing to the table, engagement leads to bigger opportunities.”