Sid Martin Biotechnology Incubator

Quando eu estava, em 2014, pesquisando na Flórida o que a  cidade de Gainesville estava fazendo para se tornar um hub de empresas de tecnologia; eu fiquei baseado no CIED, Center for  Innovation and Economic Development do Santa Fe College. Entre as várias instituições que visitei teve uma que me chamou bastante atenção: uma incubadora.
Escrevi esse texto pensando que uma incubadora desse tipo seria a pedra angular do tão sonhado Vale da Biodiversidade do professor Rodemarck Castelo Branco e do Parque de Biotecnologia do meu amigo Alfredo Lopes; e ajudaria bastante no Vale do Jaraqui (https://nogueiraclaudio.blogspot.com/2015/11/o-vale-do-jaraqui.html), do magnífico Cleinaldo Costa. 
Texto originalmente publicado em 30 de novembro de 2015.

UF Sid Martin Biotechnology Incubator

Excerpt from the book that I am writing :"Gainesville, from a University Town to an Innovation Hub"

The Sid Martin Biotechnology Development Institute was established, in 1995, with funds from the following institutions: University of Florida, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the State of Florida, to foster the development of bioscience startup companies that bear some relationship to the University.

Placed in the Progress Corporate Park, in Alachua City; a small town fourteen miles (about 22 km) northern downtown Gainesville, the incubator is, along with the Park, one of the most important tools that Alachua County has in its underway process to become an innovation hub.

Managed by Patti Breedlove[1], under the supervision of Davis Day, UF Assistant Vice President and Director of Office of Technology Licensing, the Incubator is one of the first life science-business incubators in the United States.

There are eight companies in situ dealing with “clean tech, diagnostic, therapeutic, drug delivery, genomic, bio-medical device, agbio, biofuels, and others.” With emphasis on the following residents: AxoGen, Inc.,  a biomedical company that develops “products that will allow surgeons to repair and regenerate peripheral nerves more successfully than ever before”[2]; Applied Food Technologies,Inc.(Aft), “a growth stage biotechnology company developing molecular diagnostics to address issues related to safety, science and technology in the food industry”[3] ; and Applied Genetic Technologies, Corp. (Agtc), which is developing cures for rare lung and eye diseases [4]. Agtc has recently applied for getting US$ 70 million in an initial public offering (IPO).[5] 

Twenty eight former residents have already graduated. Nevertheless, there are three Graduate Members that still have access to the program resources. One of them, Nanotherapeutics, Inc., has become news due to a contract up to $360 million over a 10 year period, awarded by the US Defense Department (DOD), to build a drug development and manufacturing facility, the Medical Countermeasures Advanced Development and Manufacturing Center (MCM ADM). “The goal of the contract is to enable faster and more effective development of medical countermeasures designed to protect and treat military populations against chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear attacks and outbreaks of naturally occurring, emerging and genetically engineered infectious diseases.”[6] 

There are also external companies, fourteen in all, called Affiliates and Associates. The former are off-site, advanced companies that use the program resources or want to establish relationships with resident companies. Affiliates are off-site young companies, which are too early stage to qualify for residency, but can benefit from program resources.[7]

Last year, UBI, a Sweden-based organization specialized in benchmarking incubators worldwide, awarded the UF Sid Martin Biotechnology Incubator as the Best Business Biotech Incubator in the world, and the Global Top # 23.[8]

UBI justify its choice: It is “one of the most experienced and fully-equipped bio-business incubators in the U.S. The program is committed to feeding, fueling and healing the world through biotechnology.”[9]

The National Business Incubation Association (NBIA) recognized Sid Martin as the 2013 Best Incubator of the Year among all categories; and so, granted it the Randal M. Whaley Award. Also chose it as the 2013 Best Dinah Adkins Incubator of the Year, for being a tech-intensive-oriented  incubator.  

NBIA states that: “The incubator has, since its creation, attracted $890 million in funding and produced an average annual economic impact of $100 million in Alachua County, Fla [unfortunately, I was not able to learn how this impact was measured]. Recent success stories include the acquisition of three incubated companies for $113 million [Pasteuria], $98 million [Celunol Inc], and $34 million [EraGen Biosciences], respectively” [10].

Notedly, NBIA is considering the Incubator and the Park as they were just one entity.

This is also perceivable with the information provided by Adam Boukari, the Alachua City Assistant City Manager: “Progress Park has great economic impact on our community.  With more than 1,200 jobs (many highly skilled) and 30+ companies.” We are going to discuss more about it in the next section.

What makes Sid Martin Biotech Incubator such a winning incubator?

Besides the modern facilities, the state-of-the-art equipment and devices that comply with the highest quality standards, and “access to advanced instrumentation, scientific expertise, and services at reduced rates through UF’s campus-based Interdisciplinary Center for Biotechnology Research (ICBR), Nanoscale Research Facility (NRF), and Major Analytical Instrumentation Center (MAIC)",[11] it supplies to residents (which  enables them  to develop their  core competencies): company labs, cold rooms, greenhouses, seedling growth, chambers, fermentation room, and microscope room. Futhermore, it provides: conference room, business support through “introductions to investor groups and experienced life science attorneys, business plan assistance, accountants, and other service providers.” And much more for the supporting activities.

Moreover, for the scientific community, the Incubator provides a web-based resource, the “Florida BioDatabase”. An important source of updated information on incubators and the bioscience industry, plus unique profiles of biotech and biomedical device companies in Florida.

Assuredly, the Sid Martin Biotechnology Incubator is one of the cornerstones for the Alachua County to turn into an innovation hub.

Progress Corporate Park

The idea of a Park, actually a 204-acre area UF-owned, was conceived in the early 1980’s by the president of UF, Robert Marston, who foresaw a place where UF's technology projects and private startup companies could coexist in the same environment; where both would mutually benefit.

In 1984, the Florida Power purchased the property from the University of Florida Foundation. In the mid-1990’s The Florida Power (FP) spun off the property to Echelon International; which FP controlled. At that time the UF has already, in the Park, a large animal facility bought in 1990. And in 1994, it built the Sid Martin Biotech Martin Biotech Incubator.

The first building was constructed in 1987. Today the Park has over thirty companies, employing more than 1100 people. Seventy five percent of them work for a UF-related company.

In 1998, the Echelon and UF entered into an agreement providing in detail the obligations of each organization and defining the continuing UF’s commitment to the Progress Corporate Park. The University expresses this commitment by promoting the use of the park by the UF research programs, startup companies and licensees of the teaching body of university technology.

In addition to the UF Sid Martin Biotechnology Incubator complex with its labs, animal facilities and greenhouses, the park is home to UF's Center of Excellence for Regenerative Health Biotechnology (CERHB) providing workforce

education, training and translational research to support the growing biotechnology-based industry. CERHB’s state-of-the-art biopharmaceutical GMP manufacturing and testing facility, Florida Biologix, provides a broad range of early phase, biologic drug development services.

In 2012, the Alachua City approved the development of 280 adjacent acres for biotech R&D and manufacturing. Santa Fe College’s newest campus, the Charles R. and Nancy V. Perry Emerging Technologies Center, opened in 2009 across from the park focusing on biotech workforce training with two and four-year degrees.

Park development has been influenced by the presence of UF’s most successful spinout, RTI Biologics. Most of UF’s successful bioscience startups began life in Progresss Corporate Park.

Companies located in Progress Park may apply for Foreign Trade Zone # 64 status through JAXPORT (Jacksonville Port). The company’s direct imports would be treated as if they remain in a foreign country and they not pay U.S. import duties. FTZs help customers trim cash flow. They allow companies to defer payment of import duties until they sell goods to U.S. buyers outside the zone. Or they can skip duties completely if the goods are re-exported.[12]

When I visited the Park and the Incubator last week, I could not help thinking about INPA and CBA; especially on the latter one. The incubator would be a good institution to be benchmarked by us. I will keep dreaming. One day we will have something similar.

Cláudio Nogueira

[1] http://www.sidmartinbio.org/patti-interview-1/

[2] http://www.axogeninc.com/

[3] http://www.appliedfoodtechnologies.com/

[4] http://www.agtc.com/

[5] http://www.nasdaq.com/markets/ipos/company/applied-genetic-technologies-corp-611847-74387

[6] http://www.sidmartinbio.org/nanotherapeutics-celebrates-groundbreaking-of-its-advanced-development-and-manufacturing-center-nano-adm-in-copeland-park-alachua-fl/

[7] http://www.sidmartinbio.org/external-clients/

[8] http://ubiindex.com/highlight-sidmartin/

http://ubiindex.com/global-top-list-2013/

[9] http://ubiindex.com/global-top-list-2013/

    http://ubiindex.com/highlight-sidmartin

[10] http://www.nbia.org/success_stories/awards/2013/

[11] http://www.sidmartinbio.org/facilities/

[12] Foreign Trade Zone.  http://www.jaxport.com/cargo/services/foreign-trade-zone