Benham Publishing Businesss Magazines December 2013 | Page 36

SponsoredFeature Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst Anyone who calls Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst (SBC) the “GSK Incubator” has undoubtedly not heard about the corporates that have recently announced tenancy at the 10,000sq m2 site. SBC is the UK’s first open innovation bioscience campus, co-located on the GSK R&D site in Stevenage and supported by Government, industry, and the charitable sector. Its remit is to assist early-stage bioscience companies through access to commercial expertise, routes to funding, and most importantly, by fostering a culture of open innovation. In this vein, one of the latest pharmas to establish a presence at SBC includes the London-based J&J Innovation Centre, which aims to identify exciting new assets, technologies and companies for partnership through regular interaction with the 26 tenants and wider network that comprise the SBC community. MRC Technology, a life science technology transfer organisation, announced in October the relocation of MRC Technology’s drug discovery activities to the campus. The move forms an important part of MRC Technology’s evolution and sees their Centre for Therapeutics Discovery become the cornerstone tenant in SBC’s Accelerator building. Fit-out of the facilities is expected to start shortly, with completion and relocation by 2015. biopharmaceuticals, also announced in October the opening of a Technology Laboratory on the bioscience campus. Universities are part of the mix too - Cambridge continues its collaboration with GSK to progress its drug candidates, and a London University is under discussion with SBC about bringing several projects into the fold. Other universities GE Healthcare Life Sciences, a global provider of tools, technologies and services for life science research and for the manufacturing of engaging with tenants include Bristol and Manchester. However impressive the actual facility, far more inspiring is SBC’s growing connections between big pharma and healthcare companies, academia, charities and SMEs to advance biomedical discovery- a true feat of open innovation. Miranda Knaggs Sales, Marketing & Events Manager Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst [email protected] www.