SBC to host J&J; Innovation Partnering Office
Global healthcare company to access Incubator’s Innovation Network
Stevenage, UK, June 20 2013 – Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst (SBC), the UK’s first open innovation (OI) bioscience campus, is pleased to announce that Johnson & Johnson Innovation has established an in-house Partnering Office on site. This relationship represents an important addition to the incubator’s entrepreneurial community. Through it, experts from the London Innovation Centre of Johnson & Johnson Innovation will be able to access and influence new areas of technology and product development, via SBC’s tenants, stakeholders and innovation network. A leading healthcare player, the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies spans the pharmaceutical, medical device and diagnostics and consumer markets globally.
The London Innovation Centre is part of Johnson & Johnson Innovation, which focuses on accelerating early innovation and enhancing opportunities for collaboration and investment across the company’s healthcare businesses, building relationships with academia, bioscience organisations and venture capital firms. These types of organisations are well represented in SBC’s innovation network. Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst’s stakeholders are GlaxoSmithKline, the Wellcome Trust, the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, the Technology Strategy Board and the former East of England Development Agency.
Dr Martino Picardo, CEO of Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst, said ‘We are delighted that Johnson & Johnson Innovation in the UK has decided to establish a partnering office at SBC, in a natural extension of our unique pharma incubation model. Innovation is a collaborative and serendipitous process and SBC is working with partners like this to create an environment where it can flourish. With its broad expertise, J&J is a great partner as we look to catalyse innovation across healthcare, from drug discovery to convergent medical technologies.’