LA BioMed—a nonprofit research organization located on the campus of Harbor-UCLA Medical Center campus—closed a $50 million bond sale to benefit a new biomedical research building and biotech incubator.
The sale of the Series 2018 Tax-Exempt Revenue Bonds, issued by the California Health Facilities Financing Authority, was led by Wells Fargo Securities.
“The proceeds will help us create new innovative biomedical solutions with a new research building, biotech incubator and a campus that facilitates the bed-to-bench-to bed cycle of innovation we have nurtured at LA BioMed," said Dr. David Meyer, president and CEO of LA BioMed.
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LA BioMed is planning to open a new $63 million, four-story bioscience research and incubator in February 2019. It will be focused on improving healthcare through the research and development of new treatments and therapies and will offer space to incubate between 25 and 30 companies, officials said.
LA BioMed has launched 13 spin-offs since it launched in 2006. It is affiliated with the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
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While academic health centers have always invested in tech transfer activities, they have increasingly poured investments into upgrading their biomedical research and their incubation spaces for commercialization in recent years. In July, RWJBarnabas Health announced a $1 billion partnership with Rutgers University as part of a bigger public-private partnership to create a jointly operated academic health system, including the construction of a new clinical and research building for the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey.
In April, Nashville-based Vanderbuilt University Medical Canter announced it would launch a subsidiary that will help commercialize its researchers' work with outside drug companies and Falls Church, Virginia-based Inova Health System, which is creating a personalized health campus, started both an accelerator and a drug discovery program as part of a vision to enhance research partnerships and creating new revenue streams.