Drexel University in Philadelphia recently created an entrepreneurship incubator that aims to fund and seed investment in companies ready to move into the market. According to MedCity News, the incubator will support medical and biotech startups along with a more diverse portfolio of startups.
“The general challenge at hand is how do we take all the talent that we have here in Philadelphia, keep it here and allow it to function within an innovation ecosystem that produces new businesses, new jobs and creates a virtuous cycle,” said Drexel President John Fry. “We have seen different communities around the country, most specifically Cambridge and Palo Alto thrive because of the ecosystem that had been created between the universities, the healthcare organizations and businesses and what has happened as a result of that. And we have never seemed to capture the right ingredients here in Philadelphia, even though when you take a look at it from a talent perspective or asset perspective, we seem to have the same if not more so than those other communities. So what we have tried to do somewhat systematically over the last several years is ask ourselves, ‘How can we build a proper innovation ecosystem?’”
Drexel’s entrepreneurship incubator is not the first of its kind to sponsor biotech startups in Philadelphia. On a campus adjacent to Drexel, the University of Pennsylvania’s UPstart program supports technology commercialization within the University of Pennsylvania community. The 50 active companies UPstart supports have gained $7.5 million in funding. One of these companies, Axonia, has developed a method of transplanting nerve grafts to enhance the function of peripheral nerves that have suffered damage.
Lab suppliers interested in marketing their life science solutions and increasing lab sales leads at Philadelphia life science marketing events may also be interested in the latest NIH and NSF funding statistics at the University of Pennyslvania. In 2012, the University of Pennsylvania received $457.5 million from the NIH. In 2011, the NIH ranked the University of Pennsylvania third in the country for direct plus indirect costs in the life sciences, excluding R&D contracts and ARRA awards. For a full list of departments receiving NIH funding at the University of Pennsylvania organized by department name, number of awards received and total funding awarded, please visit the NIH website.
The University of Pennsylvania
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
In addition to receiving NIH funding, the University of Pennsylvania also received $32 million from the NSF in 2012. Of that funding, $2 million went towards life science projects. Some of the life science departments receiving NSF funding include molecular biophysics, genetic mechanisms, physiology and structural systems, and systems and synthetic biology.
If you are a lab supplier interested in marketing your life science solutions and increasing lab sales leads at Philadelphia life science marketing events, Biotechnology Calendar, Inc. invites you to attend our annual Philadelphia BioResearch Product Faire™ Event held at the University of Pennsylvania campus, adjacent to the Drexel University campus. Biotechnology Calendar, Inc. is a full-service science research marketing and events-planning company that organizes life science marketing events at top research universities across the country.
Last year, the Philadelphia BioResearch Product Faire™ Event attracted 465 visitors. 140 of these attendees were purchasing agents, professors and post docs, and 72 were lab managers. The show visitors came from 56 different research buildings and 65 departments around campus. For information about the Philadelphia BioResearch Product Faire™ Event, or to learn more about detailed funding statistics at the University of Pennsylvania, click on the button below. If you are interested in marketing your life science solutions and increasing lab sales leads at life science marketing events closer to home, we encourage you to view our 2013 calendar of events.