Second (Science) City No More
Second (Science) City No More
Could a bold Penn investment strategy jumpstart the makeover our urban center needs?
Feb. 28, 2019
Philadelphians—Philly media, peculiarly—dear referring to the city as a "meds and eds" hotbed, but they might be the only ones using that label. Spend whatsoever fourth dimension exterior of Philly and it becomes articulate that our global reputation still hinges more than on tired tropes: Rocky; cheesesteaks; unhinged mascots.
The reality is that, for years, Philly has lagged behind intellectual hotbeds like Boston, Silicon Valley—even Pittsburgh, with its autonomous auto startups and Google outpost—for bookish and entrepreneurial talent. That stems in large office from the funding sources those cities have more successfully attracted and cultivated to seed and support businesses.
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Accept Boston where, co-ordinate to the nonprofit Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, 18 of the top 20 drug companies and 10 of the elevation medical device companies are located, and where, as far dorsum every bit 2008, venture capitalists take steadily been investing billions of dollars in scientific inventions. Those dollars and jobs (more than 100,000 people in Massachusetts are employed in biotech) and that infinite (Boston has an estimated 28 1000000 square feet of labs) simply don't be in Philly.
But over the final year, Penn has been leading an aggressive charge to modify that.
"I think Philadelphia could exercise a meliorate chore of branding itself. We're known for the Freedom Bell and history. Just we're creating new history," says Kevin Mahoney, the executive vice president of the University of Pennsylvania Health Organisation and executive vice dean at Penn'south Perelman School of Medicine.
Just one year into the pilot, Penn has invested $14 meg that has generated $470 million of outside funding, $88 one thousand thousand of which volition come dorsum to Penn as corporate sponsorship agreements to create jobs, fund research—and keep talent in Philadelphia.
This new chapter, dubbed simply the "co-investment pilot," is a $l million pot of Penn's own money, to exist invested over three years in Penn faculty-led businesses that commit to the post-obit, equally reported terminal June: advancing scientific discipline; getting novel treatments to patients quickly and safely; and edifice an ecosystem—that is, setting up shop and staying —in Philadelphia. Whatever company up for consideration is reviewed by a leadership team from Penn Center for Innovation, Penn Role of Investments, Penn Role of General Counsel and Penn Medicine.
Just one year into the pilot, Penn has invested $14 one thousand thousand that has generated $470 meg of outside funding, $88 million of which will come back to Penn as corporate sponsorship agreements to create jobs, fund enquiry—and go on talent in Philadelphia.
Most chiefly to Penn, the coin is being invested to advance science and better the wellness of its patients. In the final 18 months or so, there take been six Food and Drug Administration approvals of products that were either invented or developed at Penn.
"If I was but investing, I could put that money into the endowment in the University and get a great return, or I could purchase more diagnostic equipment, or I could rent more people," Mahoney says. "But if you tin cure people, or make their wellness condition ameliorate, or advance science, that'southward what we're hither for. It's not to be a tech fund."
Penn's belief in the potential of the pilot came from the indisputable success of an early model for it. In 2015, Mahoney proposed to Penn's board that they invest $5 million in Tmunity Therapeutics ; the company—led by Penn kinesthesia Carl H. June; Bruce Levine; Yangbing Zhao; Jim Riley; and Anne Chew—focuses on developing immunotherapies designed to squash devastating diseases similar cancer. (While the investment happened prior to the 2022 showtime of the $50 one thousand thousand pilot, Tmunity is considered the program'south get-go beneficiary—a sort of pre-pilot pilot.)
"The reason nosotros're doing it is the research funding that'south coming in, and [to] keep our kinesthesia engaged and in Philadelphia—not on an airplane to Boston or some of the other places that are competing with us for this life sciences hub," Mahoney says.
It was the first time Penn had seeded a company with a financial investment—and information technology proved that the model could piece of work.That $5 million vote of confidence (along with another $5 million from a China-based company called Lilly Asia Ventures ) translated into $135 one thousand thousand in series A funding to Tmunity. More meaningfully, it helped enable Tmunity to make giant strides in developing treatments for cancer and other infectious and autoimmune diseases.
On Monday, a similar model made headlines, when Philly-based Spark Therapeutics—which early, had investment from Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia—was sold to pharmaceutical behemoth Roche Holding AG for $4.3 billion. While not related to the Penn initiative, information technology certainly bolsters the Philly biotech scene and fuels a rise tide.
"[Penn] really put their money where their mouth was," says Usman Azam, Tmunity's President and CEO. " It has shown the world that you lot tin have great companies in Philadelphia and you tin can command good valuations. That's what we've washed and we promise that more companies are able to attain that kind of success."
Since the launch of the $l million pilot, Penn has invested in Passage Bio and Carisma Therapeutics (both in Philly) and Cabaletta Bio (in Radnor), all of which focus on jail cell and gene therapy, and are led by Penn faculty.
The pilot is slated to cease at the three-yr marking, a veritable lifetime in startup years. Whatever course Penn takes thereafter, Mahoney says Penn's aim will remain the aforementioned.
"We're not doing this to become a huge fiscal return. Do we want 1? Of course. Because we tin utilize that for community programs and to drive downwards the toll of healthcare," Mahoney says. "The reason we're doing it is the inquiry funding that's coming in, and [to] keep our faculty engaged and in Philadelphia—not on an aeroplane to Boston or some of the other places that are competing with u.s. for this life sciences hub."
Source: https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/second-science-city-no-more/
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