Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center of Bucks County is launching a $50m fund to invest in resident startups and to help establish university spinouts.
Nonprofit life sciences incubator Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center of Bucks County is to establish a $50m fund that will take equity in resident businesses including those exploiting academic research, the Philadelphia Business Journal reported yesterday.
Pennsylvania Biotechnology has not revealed whether it has secured external investors for the vehicle, named Hatch BioFund.
Hatch BioFund will mainly target the incubator’s residents, which typically specialise in liver diseases such as hepatitis B, as well as companies at Discovery Lab, a newly-opened incubator targeting cell, gene and regenerative medicines which counts the centre among its backers. Apart from investing in existing companies, the fund will also support the creation of new university spinouts.
Vladimir Walko, who has been appointed chief executive of Hatch Management, told Philadelphia Business Journal: “The idea is a professor at a university can have an idea for a company, take a sabbatical and come here.
“We will mentor him and help him create a company. We get part ownership, the university gets part ownership and the professor gets part ownership.”
The vehicle will funnel the profits from its portfolio into research conducted by Baruch. S Blumberg Institute, the research arm of Hepatitis B Foundation, which manages Pennsylvania Biotechnology.
From 2020, Hatch BioFund also plans to run an accelerator, dubbed Hatch BioAccelerator Program, in an effort to sustain concept-stage research from within its ecosystem by providing seed funding, lab space and other resources.
Founded in 2006 and part-funded by Pennsylvania’s state government, Pennsylvania Biotechnology currently hosts some 50 businesses, though it is set to double available lab and office capacity with the opening of a 37,000 square foot extension.
The fund is viewed as an opportunity for the incubator to profit from the support it provides. By refraining from taking equity, it has missed out on returns from alumni such as publicly-listed hepatitis B drug developer Arbutus Biopharma.
