In search of biotech hub glo­ry, the Big Ap­ple lures lo­cal star­tups with lab space

The city that nev­er sleeps is itch­ing to be­come the city that could cure in­som­nia. With Boston and San Fran­cis­co main­tain­ing their dom­i­nance as the pre­mier hubs for de­vel­op­ing drugs, New York City has or­ches­trat­ed a scheme to en­tice biotech — iden­ti­fy­ing the lack of space in these de­sired clus­ters as a key im­ped­i­ment to grow­ing star­tups.

Back in 2016, NYC may­or Bill de Bla­sio made a $500 mil­lion com­mit­ment to the sec­tor over 10 years as part of his broad­er plan to boost job cre­ation. As part of this ini­tia­tive, called LifeSci NYC, $10 mil­lion has been set aside to sup­port nascent biotechs by al­lo­cat­ing them lab space.

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