Schumer Tours New Biotech Incubator At New York Medical College -- Facility Will Create Jobs And Aims To Make Hudson Valley A Leader In Cutting Edge Biotech Innovations

Press Release

Today, U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer toured the new Biotech Incubator at New York Medical College. The 122,000 square foot incubator is currently undergoing renovations, and will soon host biotech companies' research and development operations of medical countermeasures, disaster preparedness work, clinical training, and other public health activities. At full capacity, the incubator is expected to create 140 full-time jobs, and an additional 75 part-time jobs in the Hudson Valley. Following the tour of the facility, Senator Schumer announced that he is calling on the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to support the Incubator's future efforts around public health emergency and countermeasure development. The Incubator could fit the programmatic goals of the HHS Office of Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), which helps accelerate the research and innovations needed to respond to public health threats such as emerging infectious diseases, pandemics, and bioterrorism. By matching demand with capable companies, the BARDA program through Project Bioshield helps protect the public from future threats and diseases, while helping biotech companies grow and create new jobs. Senator Schumer also announced his support for the Incubator's grant request to the New York State Economic Development Corporation to provide the remaining funding for the Incubator renovation.

Senator Schumer was joined by leaders in the biotech industry including representatives of Aureon Biosciences and Regeneron. Representatives from the Hudson Valley Economic Development Corporation, Westchester County, the New York Medical College, the New York Biotechnology Association, BioMed Realty and local elected officials also joined Schumer as he toured the facility and announced the new effort.

"After touring the Biotech Incubator today, I can see that this will be a huge step towards making the Hudson Valley a national center of medical innovation and biotechnology," said Schumer. "Unfortunately, we will always have to be on our toes and ready to respond to the latest threat from bioterrorism to infectious diseases. When a new threat appears on the horizon, I want the vaccine, the antidote, or the cures being produced right here in the Hudson Valley. I strongly urge the Department of Health and Human Services to work with the Incubator to ensure that the Hudson Valley will be home to a first class biotechnology research center that will create good paying jobs and advance our nation's public health preparedness.

"As New York's Intellectual Capital, Westchester County is a key partner in the continuing expansion of the NY BioHud Valley biotechnology cluster," said Laurence Gottlieb, Westchester County's Director of Economic Development. "With federal funding as an accelerant, we believe this corridor will further evolve as a world-class medical research and development center providing jobs to thousands of New Yorkers for years to come."

"New York's BIOHUD VALLEY continues to establish itself as the epicenter of the biotech industry in New York State," said Mike Oates, President and CEO of Hudson Valley Economic Development Corporation. "The new Biotech Incubator will continue to feed this fast growing cluster. Not only will the Incubator create jobs, it will also accelerate research and innovations that will help combat public health threats from emerging infectious diseases and bioterrorism. HVEDC supports Senator Schumer's efforts to have the Department of Health and Human Services support the Incubator's application to participate in public health emergency and countermeasure development with the Office of Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority.

The Biotech Incubator is well suited for the location, as nearly 20 percent of the biotechnology workforce in New York - 8,000 employees -- is in Westchester County, the largest concentration within the state. Westchester is also home to the largest biotech company in New York, Regeneron. The New Biotech Incubator will be further complemented by the presence of premiere medical and research institutions such as New York Medical College, and Westchester Medical Center. Additionally, the Hudson Valley has 86 BioTech companies in the region, employing nearly 11,000 residents of the aptly named Bio-Hud Valley. The Incubator's participation in public health emergency and countermeasure development with the HHS and the Department of Defense would be an important step to make the Hudson Valley a nationally known hub for biotechnology.

Together, Westchester-based biotech businesses will have created among the most new jobs in the county in 2010, an estimated 1,000-plus. In 2010, Regeneron announced plans for an expansion of the 390,000 square foot facility in Tarrytown, while also planning to add 300 more employees. Since then, they have hired all of those employees and are now in the process of hiring another 600 employees in 2011. In 1989, Regeneron consisted of 4 people.

Aureon BioSciences, a Yonkers-based Biotechnology firm is dedicated to finding new and personalized cancer treatment options. Founded in 2002, the company consisted of 4 researchers, and now the company has over 100 employees and a revolutionary cancer testing product. In the past 18 months the company expanded by 75 employees and has plans to immediately add another 30 to 40 employees. The Incubator will look to replicate the success of these companies, and others like them, by providing the resources they need to achieve scientific breakthroughs, expand their business operations and turn a brilliant idea into a profitable business.

In August 2010, President Obama and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced a streamlined strategy for the federal government to more actively protect our nation's safety and health. This strategy envisions a capabilities-based approach with the federal government playing an active role in forging partnerships, attacking constraints, and modernizing regulatory oversight. The new strategy is based on a comprehensive analysis that found that some of the most promising research and development on countermeasures is done by small, emerging biotech companies with little experience in large-scale manufacturing.

As part of this evolving strategy to improve protection of the nation's health, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), within the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is tasked with providing an integrated, systematic approach to the development and purchase of the necessary vaccines, drugs, therapies, and diagnostic tools for public health medical emergencies. BARDA aims to connect private biotech research companies with the federal government's needs, while removing barriers to innovation and reducing the opportunity costs for those private sector companies.

In September 2010, BARDA announced the first eight contract awards under an initiative to help modernize and improve the nation's infrastructure for producing medical countermeasures that protect against natural and man-made biological threats. These contracts total $55 million for the initial phase and up to $100 million over three years. These contracts were awarded using a contracting tool called a broad agency announcement (BAA). The Innovations BAA solicits proposals for work in four broad categories of medical countermeasure development: technology to accelerate evaluation of candidate vaccines and therapeutics; formulation chemistry, protein stabilization, and vaccine delivery technology; innovative methods in bioprocess development and manufacturing; and methods and technology to advance development of diagnostic tests for rapid diagnosis of human infections.

The BARDA program successfully removes barriers to innovation by reducing the opportunity costs for the private sector and providing a full suite of testing, evaluation, and product development and manufacturing services. The program also repositions the US government as a strategic partner and investor in biotechnology, and provides meaningful financial incentives and rewards to private sector partners who succeed in developing the medical countermeasures needed. The BARDA Centers of Innovation for Advanced Development and Manufacturing at the HHS also serves as a new resource for young companies, helping them bring products to market and helping the U.S. government increase the number of new countermeasures available in an emergency.

BARDA also manages Project BioShield, a program that focuses on the procurement and advanced development of medical countermeasures for chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear agents, as well as the advanced development and procurement of medical countermeasures for pandemic influenza and other emerging infectious diseases. The bipartisan Project BioShield Act was enacted in 2004 and provided new authorities to speed the research, development, acquisition and use of priority medical countermeasures against chemical, biological, nuclear, and radiological (CBRN) threats. It was also designed to streamline the approval process of such countermeasures, and provide the government with the authority to quickly authorize their use during public health emergencies. It also established a Special Reserve Fund to procure these medical products up through the year 2013. Countermeasures procured under Project BioShield of BARDA that have been delivered to the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) include treatments for anthrax (vaccines and therapeutics), radiation exposure, and botulism.

Senator Schumer supports this initiative, and states that investing in transformative technologies like the Biotech Incubator in Westchester is the best way to invest in our future and create jobs today.

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