SAN FRANCISCO, June 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Amgen
(NASDAQ:AMGN) today announced a five-year, platinum sponsorship of
the QB3@953 life sciences incubator to accelerate the development
of new therapies to improve human health. The shared laboratory
space at QB3@953 was created to help high-potential life science
and biotech startups overcome a key obstacle for many early stage
organizations - access to laboratory infrastructure.
As part of the sponsorship, Amgen launched two "Amgen Golden
Ticket" awards, providing each winner with one year of lab space at
the QB3@953 life sciences incubator, additional facility benefits
and connections to Amgen's scientific and business leaders.
The 2016 Amgen Golden Ticket winners, Mission
Bio and SiteOne Therapeutics, were chosen by a team of
scientific leaders who evaluated the strength and novelty of the
scientific rationale, subject matter expertise, and business plan
viability.
"The QB3@953 Amgen Golden Ticket award supports our research and
development strategy to fund early-stage innovation in the biotech
hubs of San Francisco and
Cambridge, Massachusetts," said
Flavius Martin, vice president of
Research, Inflammation and Oncology at Amgen. "It's critical to the
future of healthcare to support promising scientific entrepreneurs.
It's rewarding to be part of the energy and enthusiasm of
scientific entrepreneurs in this early stage, and to help
accelerate the momentum of advancements in human health."
Amgen also supports the LabCentral incubator adjacent to Amgen's
Cambridge Research and Development center.
"We are delighted to facilitate the connection with Amgen, one
of the world's leading biotechnology companies, with the
entrepreneurs at QB3@953," said Doug
Crawford, managing director at QB3@953. "Being chosen
as the Amgen Golden Ticket winner brings a prestige that resonates
with the scientific community in addition to the lab resources,
scientific and business expertise that Amgen provides."
"The leadership and scientists of SiteOne Therapeutics are
honored to receive the Amgen Golden Ticket award," said
John Mulcahy, co-founder and vice
president of research at SiteOne Therapeutics. "The vision and
entrepreneurial spirit of Amgen is remarkable, both in helping to
provide resources to innovative new companies like ours, and in
continuing to fuel development of cutting-edge medicines and
research through programs like the Amgen Golden Ticket. We are
proud to have the significance of our science and the work that we
are doing to develop novel therapeutics for chronic and acute pain
without the danger and side effects of opioids recognized by
such a strong leader in the biopharmaceutical industry."
"The Amgen Golden Ticket award will accelerate our development
of high throughput single-cell genomic applications in
immuno-oncology," said Charlie
Silver, CEO at Mission Bio. "We are excited by this
partnership with Amgen, which will offer support for extending our
platform into applications that have high potential for clinical
impact."
About the Winners
Mission Bio is innovating technologies to analyze single
cells within complex biological systems, revealing critical
information not observable from bulk sample analysis. With
proprietary microfluidic droplet technology, Mission Bio is
developing research tools that allow high-throughput, single-cell
nucleic acid characterization across a variety of research
applications, including oncology and immunology.
SiteOne Therapeutics was founded based on technology
invented at Stanford University that
represents a potential advancement in the treatment of acute and
chronic pain. The company's therapeutic candidates are
highly-selective sodium ion channel 1.7 (Naᵥ1.7) inhibitors
patterned on naturally occurring small molecules. Given the
critical role that Naᵥ1.7 plays in the generation and conduction of
pain signals, combined with the urgent need for new, non-opioid
pain therapies, SiteOne is focused on advancing its lead product
candidates for the treatment of moderate to severe pain.
About QB3@953
As a life-science incubator,
QB3@953 enables startups to successfully launch and grow their
company. The shared laboratory space facilitates an efficient
and cost-effective setup for scientist and entrepreneurs.
QB3@953's state-of-the-art facility in San Francisco is equipped with everything an
organization needs, from day one, including a team of scientists
and investors at Mission Bay Capital to provide vital mentorships
and connections. The move-in-ready laboratory space is designed
specifically to suit early-stage-startups, complete with the latest
equipment available to use immediately. With QB3@953 startups can
move faster and further, on less capital. They stay focused on
their science by not having to worry about the facility.
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 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, San Francisco
Carol Pawlak, (650) 244-2325
QB3@953
Douglas Crawford
(415) 633-6151
douglas.crawford@missionbaycapital.com
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SOURCE Amgen