LIfT BioSciences has joined the UK's leading BioIncubator, Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst (SBC), for the UK's most promising SMEs in the healthcare space. The move will give LIfT Bio access to a spectrum of state-of-the-art translational research labs and development capabilities, including Europe’s largest Cell Production Facility with a £55m manufacturing centre on the SBC campus being developed through the UK government’s Cell & Gene Therapy Catapult. SBC just celebrated it’s five year anniversary, having successfully developed a number of promising Biotech companies in that time. SBC is a joint venture between Government, GlaxoSmithKline, Wellcome and Innovate UK that is focused on the development of the UK cell therapy industry to increase the nation's health and wealth.
The move also gives LIfT Bio access to the wider community of the Johnson & Johnson, GE Healthcare, Eli Lilly & Sanofi who are all interested in exciting new assets, technologies and companies for partnership.
LIfT BioSciences CEO, Alex Blyth, commented that “It is never far from our minds that of those patients diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer today, less that 5% of them will still be with us in 5 years time if we don’t get our potentially curative cell therapy to them first. We are not here to simply investigate the interesting new science in innate immunity, we are here to save lives sooner in this race against time! So working with The Stevenage BioCatalyst provides the perfect environment to do just that.”
Stevenage BioCatalyst CEO, Martino Picardo, commented “We are delighted to welcome Lift Biosciences into our Community at SBC, they certainly fulfill the entry criteria for strong IP based on quality science. In particular, we look forward to helping Lift engage with the growing community around cell and gene therapy and to deliver their exciting business plan”.