Expanding Innovation in the BY ALI JACKSON-JOLLEY, M.B.A.
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n the fall of 2018, BioInc@NYMC welcomed its ninth client, Affina Biotechnologies, a drug discovery startup developing a novel treatment for late-stage ovarian cancer. With the addition of Affina, New York Medical College’s (NYMC) biotechnology incubator was filled to capacity—yet demand for incubator space continued to grow. “We were receiving inquiries from interested entrepreneurs but didn’t have any space left to offer,” explains Salomon Amar, D.D.S., Ph.D., vice president of research at NYMC and senior vice president for research affairs for Touro College and University System. According to Dr. Amar, who oversees BioInc@NYMC, “We had outgrown our space and it was time to expand.” Recognizing BioInc@NYMC’s potential to fill this demand, the State of New York awarded NYMC $450,000 to fund the incubator’s expansion. Previously occupying a 10,000-squarefoot wing of NYMC’s Dana Road building, the expansion nearly doubled the incubator’s space to 19,500 square feet, allowing BioInc@NYMC to support up to 20 additional clients at the forefront of medical innovation. On October 29, 2019—five years after NYMC launched BioInc@ NYMC as the Hudson Valley’s only biotechnology incubator at a health sciences college—New York State’s prominent business leaders, policymakers, academics and entrepreneurs, gathered in the incubator’s sleek new meeting space to celebrate the grand opening of its expansion. Thus, began the next chapter of innovation for BioInc@NYMC.
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IT BEGAN AS A DREAM At the event, New York State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins, recalled how BioInc@NYMC came to be, “What started as a vision grew into this incubator filled with biotech businesses, creating new jobs and stimulating the economy— and is now growing even bigger. What an amazing story for Westchester County and an incredible resource for this region.” Forged from a partnership across the county, state, federal government, private enterprise and NYMC, the BioInc@NYMC list of “founding grandparents” (those credited with creating and seeding the incubator) is extensive. The incubator’s origin story cannot be told without Robert W. Amler, M.D., M.B.A., vice president for government affairs and dean of the School of Health Sciences and Practice. “The notion that Westchester County could become a major contender in the tri-state’s biotech cluster began to emerge around 2005. It was around 2011 when Westchester’s business leaders approached me with an ambitious proposition: a new biotechnology incubator, formed through a private-public collaboration and located at NYMC to drive innovation and industry growth in the Hudson Valley Region,” Dr. Amler recalls. “Was it possible? Would it be profitable? Could we really create an incubator with the power to drive biotech innovation while creating value for the College? The idea was met with both excitement and a healthy dose of skepticism,” recalls Dr. Amler. To figure this out, Edward C. Halperin, M.D., M.A., chancellor and chief executive officer at NYMC, assembled a committee to conduct an economic viability analysis. Touring biotechnology incubators across the country, the committee learned from the victories and mistakes made by incubators that came before. “A
