CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Oct. 13, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Amgen (NASDAQ:
AMGN) and LabCentral announced today that Novopyxis, Inc. and
Cocoon Biotech, Inc. are Amgen's 2015 selection for Golden Ticket
winners, which supply each company with lab space at LabCentral.
LabCentral is an innovative, shared laboratory space designed as a
launchpad for life-sciences and biotech startups.
As one of LabCentral's platinum sponsors, Amgen can nominate up
to two early-stage companies per year to take up residence in
LabCentral's Kendall Square facilities in Cambridge, Mass. Novopyxis and Cocoon Biotech
are each working on new ways to deliver potential life-changing
therapies.
"We are pleased to announce the first Golden Ticket winners as a
result of Amgen's sponsorship of LabCentral," said Sam Guhan, vice president, Process Development
and site head, Amgen Massachusetts. "The Golden Ticket award
captures the essence of what it means to support early-stage
innovation and it does so within Cambridge's burgeoning life sciences
epicenter. Fostering an opportunity where entrepreneurs such as
Novopyxis and Cocoon Biotech are able to further research and drive
novel science can enable future innovations that will advance new
treatments and continue collaborative growth."
"We applaud Amgen's choice of Novopyxis and Cocoon Biotech,
which like the rest of our residents and recent graduates,
represent the frontiers of medical research," said LabCentral
co-founder and president Johannes
Fruehauf, M.D., Ph.D. "Our Golden Ticket program is a
wonderful way for our highest-level sponsors to encourage and
mentor the work of an early-stage company they would like to
support. As for our start-ups, they thrive in the LabCentral
co-working environment, which provides them ready access to the
latest, most-advanced laboratory equipment and discovery tools
along with the free-flow of ideas from the best scientific minds.
We welcome Novopyxis and Cocoon, and thank Amgen for its continued
support."
Novopyxis is developing medical devices and therapeutics to
treat diseases that currently have few treatment options. The
company's flagship transdermal delivery system, Droplette, exploits
fluid physics phenomena to generate an enhanced aerosol that
enables painless and contact-free delivery of large molecules deep
through skin. Additionally, Novopyxis has a therapeutic arm with
two lead compounds currently undergoing preclinical testing.
Cocoon Biotech was founded in 2013 to bring treatments for
arthritis and other debilitating diseases to market. Cocoon
Biotech's platform technology is a biocompatible silk protein that
can be injected into joints to provide effective long lasting pain
relief and potentially delay the progression of disease. This
platform will leverage several unique properties of the silk
protein fibroin, including strength, lubrication, and
biocompatibility.
The 2016 Golden Ticket nomination process opens Oct. 13, 2015. Amgen will sponsor up to two
promising life-sciences and biotech startup companies to reside in
LabCentral's facilities. The Golden Ticket represents one
year of bench space for one scientist. Interested companies should
send a non-confidential company presentation for consideration to
GoldenTicket@amgen.com by Oct.
30, 2015. Amgen will notify finalists on Dec. 10, 2015.
About LabCentral (www.labcentral.org; twitter
@labcentral)
A 28,000 square-foot facility in the heart of
the Kendall Square, Cambridge,
Mass., a biotech innovation hub, LabCentral is a
first-of-its-kind shared laboratory space designed as a launchpad
for high-potential life-sciences and biotech startups. It offers
fully permitted laboratory and office space for early-stage
companies comprising approximately 125 scientists and
entrepreneurs. LabCentral provides first-class facility and
administrative support, skilled laboratory personnel, a
domain-relevant expert speaker series—as well as the other critical
services and support that startups need to begin laboratory
operations on day one. A private, nonprofit institution, LabCentral
was funded in part by a $5 million
grant from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, with support
from its real-estate partner, MIT.
Founding sponsors include Triumvirate Environmental and Johnson
& Johnson Innovation
About Amgen
Amgen is committed to unlocking the
potential of biology for patients suffering from serious illnesses
by discovering, developing, manufacturing and delivering innovative
human therapeutics. This approach begins by using tools like
advanced human genetics to unravel the complexities of disease and
understand the fundamentals of human biology.
Amgen focuses on areas of high unmet medical need and leverages
its biologics manufacturing expertise to strive for solutions that
improve health outcomes and dramatically improve people's lives. A
biotechnology pioneer since 1980, Amgen has grown to be one of the
world's leading independent biotechnology companies, has reached
millions of patients around the world and is developing a pipeline
of medicines with breakaway potential.
For more information, visit www.amgen.com and follow us on
www.twitter.com/amgen.
Contact:
Amgen, Massachusetts
Jennifer Bianco, (401) 392-8815
LabCentral, Massachusetts
Caroline Grossman, (781)
771-5579
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SOURCE Amgen