By Stephen Nellis – 11/16/2007 Pacific Coast Business Times
Just a few months ago, the thought of a biotechnology incubator in Ventura County was just that – a thought.
But now the incubator idea has garnered interested tenants, a possible site, a business plan and – most importantly – investors’ ears. Such a space would allow early stage biotech companies to share ideas, office space and equipment costs with similar companies.
In the time between, Amgen, the world’s largest biotechnology company, shed more than 675 jobs from its Thousand Oaks headquarters. The cuts unleashed a tempest of departing biotech talent, potentially seeding the region to become an industry hub on par with San Diego and the San Francisco Bay area. “It’s kind of like when the Santa Ana winds are blowing and the vegetation is dry. All you need is a match,” said John Dilts, the founder and president of Maverick Angels and co-founder of the SoCal Biotech Ventures Summit. “You’ve got some of the world’s brightest biotech minds in the area.”
Dilts and Brent Reinke, a corporate partner at Musick, Peeler & Garrett and co-founder of the SoCal Biotech Ventures Summit, hope the match that ignites Ventura County’s biotech fuel is a site where developing firms can do more than just split the cost of office space.
“It would serve as a catalyst to bring together all the resources and relationships that you need when you start a company, especially one as complex as a biotech,” Dilts said of his vision for an incubator. “Innovating in a vacuum is never a good thing.”
Their idea is gaining traction. While the preliminary nature of the discussions kept Reinke from talking in specifics, he said he’s been contacted a number of “very senior former Amgen executives and Amgen researchers” about building an incubator.
The interest is there, and now the challenge is forging a plan and raising funding, Reinke and Dilts said. They said they’ve identified a potential site for the incubator and crafted a business plan.
And on the money front, Reinke said he’s heard from several Bay area venture capital funds that are interested in Ventura County.
Another idea under discussion is building a venture capital fund in the $50 million range that would target biotech startups in Ventura County, Dilts said.
There’s only probably going to be space for eight companies in it,” Reinke said. “But I think the symbolic gesture goes way beyond the companies.”
Both Reinke and Dilts are quick to point out that time is short. They estimate they may have only a year before the danger of what Dilts dubs a “brain drain.”
While some former Amgen workers can afford to retire and stay in the area, many can’t.
“What we need to do is create a reason for them to stay, and we don’t really have much time to do that,” Reinke Said.