NEW: RI Life Science Companies Strut Their Stuff
Victoria Elmore, GoLocalProv Contributor
NEW: RI Life Science Companies Strut Their Stuff
The showcase highlighted the potential for commercial development of these innovations and how investment in the city’s “Knowledge District” can revitalize the state’s economy.
The showcase featured an Open Studio Walkabout in which proprietors of some of Providence’s most promising life sciences companies opened their doors to showcase-goers. NABsys, EpiVax, ShapeUp, and Isis Biopolymer all participated, leading visitors through a self-guided tour of the 19.2-acre Knowledge District. The land, made available by the relocation of Route 195, is also home to Brown University’s Warren Alpert Medical School, and has been targeted to become the center for a new, knowledge-based economy in the city’s old Jewelry District.
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NABsys develops DNA-sequencing technology that will help scientists map, understand, and treat diseases like cancer. According to CEO and President Barrett Beady, M.D., who was recently named “Rhode Island Innovator of the Year,” the company attracts a highly educated workforce – from the likes of Brown, MIT and Harvard, to name a few – and is capitalizing on Providence’s potential to become one of the foremost hubs of life science innovation in the country.
“Providence has many of the key components,” Beady said. “There are prestigious research institutions and teaching hospitals, available venture capital, and an educated workforce. It also has a strategic location, with easy access to both Boston and New York.”
Access to universities and proximity to other major cities cropped up over and over again as crucial elements to Providence’s potential as a life sciences hub. Government support was also cited as a critical component.
“Great research universities, a talented workforce and a government that promotes innovation are the three raw materials that set a foundation for a flourishing life sciences ecosystem,” said Chris Hobson, CEO of Isis Biopolymer. His company develops active transdermal pharmaceutical delivery patches. The company’s first product, the IsisIQ, is an electrically charged, whisper-thin patch that delivers known wrinkle-reducers deep into facial tissue.
“We’re helping extend Boston’s rich biotech industry into Providence,” Hobson added. “We’re providing local jobs. Our factory employs almost 100 people, and the majority of our employees are Rhode Islanders.”
EpiVax: vaccines and therapeutics
Jason Del Pozzo, head of business development at EpiVax, called Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee and Providence Mayor Angel Taveras “integral to the development of Providence’s knowledge economy.” EpiVax designs vaccines and therapeutics and conducts “immunogenicity screenings,” – essentially safety checking new therapeutic drugs for large and small pharmaceutical companies.
Del Pozzo also cited the Slater Technology Fund, a General Assembly-financed fund that invests up to $3 million annually into life science and information technology ventures, as a major incentive for life science innovation in the Ocean State.
ShapeUp: impact on the economy
Representatives from all four businesses were confident that their knowledge-based ventures were destined to (if not already) have a significant positive impact on Rhode Island’s economy. Tony Panciera, of ShapeUp, highlighted the benefits the company has created for the state’s workforce as a whole. ShapeUp is an online wellness platform that connects a business’ employees in a motivational network to eat well and keep in shape.'
“ShapeUp provides incentives to improve employees health,” Panciera said. “It emphasizes wellness in the Rhode Island workforce.”
The overarching sentiment of each stop along the Walkabout was optimism for the future of Providence and Rhode Island if the state can continue to foster rapid growth of its knowledge economy.