Entrepreneurs and Start-Ups Support Mayor de Blasio's LifeSci NYC Initiative

December 13, 2016

Dr. Tom Maniatis, Chair of the Biochemistry Department at the Columbia University Medical Center and Director of the Precision Medicine Initiative at Columbia University, said, “The extraordinary academic biomedical infrastructure in New York City is predominant nationally in both quality and scale. However, the City has not emerged as a leading national biotechnology hub. The Mayor’s commitment to invest and enable the life sciences in New York will be transformative. The initiative will make it possible to move discoveries from academic labs to the clinic thru the growth of biotechnology in the city. This will be driven by the exceptional New York universities, hospitals and by multi-university consortia such as the New York Genome Center and the New York Structural Biology Center, which bring both technology and infrastructure to the biomedical community”.

Tony Coles, MD, Chairman and CEO of Yumanitv Therapeutics, said, “This commitment of City resources to help create new companies and new opportunities in the life sciences industry is a pioneering initiative – and it comes at a time when science and technology are on the verge of great breakthroughs in the treatment of several vexing diseases. This investment will accelerate the growth of this vital sector and put New York in a leading position to attract top talent.”

Sam Sia, co-Founder of Harlem Biospace, said, "We are thrilled about this Life Sciences announcement, which will help New York City capitalize on its base of world-class biomedical research. Harlem Biospace was founded as an initiative of the New York City Economic Development Corporation. Through that lens, we have seen glimpses of the potential for a thriving biotech economy, but also the challenges faced by entrepreneurs surrounding lab space and support mechanisms. With this important initiative which promotes an array of solutions, New York City will take a quantum leap in moving our biotech economy forward."

Johannes Fruehauf, M.D., PhD, Founder and President of Biolabs, said, “At Biolabs, we are excited and very bullish about the prospect for the life sciences industry in New York City. We look forward to helping start-up companies whose origins are in NYC’s world-class research institutions grow and succeed within our premier co-working wet laboratory space.”

Joe Landolina, Chief Executive Officer of Cresilon, Inc., said, “Cresilon, Inc.’s internship program was developed to expose young professionals to industry; in fact, over the last 3 years we’ve employed almost 40 interns, carefully selected from a candidate pool of 7,000 applications nationwide. As Cresilon grows, we welcome the opportunity to work with the City to expand our capabilities and provide young professionals a window into the fast-growing biotechnology sector in NYC.”

Dr. Angelos Stergiou, MD, ScD h.c., CEO and Vice Chairman of Sellas Life Sciences Group, said, “SELLAS Life Sciences is excited to be part of New York’s growing biotech community, with our subsidiary based here to conduct ongoing research and development. Our lead product candidate, galinpepimut-S, is a late-stage innovative WT1-targeting immunotherapeutic, licensed from New York’s world-renowned Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Galinpepimut-S is in development for a broad range of cancer indications and after promising data from studies to date, we look forward to initiating a Phase III trials for acute myeloid leukemia and malignant pleural mesothelioma next year. Albeit we are a foreign-based company, with our fully-owned subsidiary located in NYC, we are extremely proud to be part of the wider NYC biotechnology family and urge companies domestically, as well as internationally, to consider NYC home."