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May 18, 2022

Yale Innovation Summit celebrates thriving bioscience sector, seeks new alpha

PHOTO | Liese Klein Nora Khaldi, founder and CEO of Ireland-based Nuritas, speaks at the Yale Innovation Summit on May 17, 2022.
By Liese Klein

Why New Haven?

“The pizza?” ventured Nora Khaldi, to laughs from a packed house at Tuesday’s Yale Innovation Summit at the Omni New Haven Hotel.

Khaldi, founder and CEO of Ireland-based Nuritas, spoke at a panel entitled “Why Connecticut?” at the event on the day she announced that her bioscience company would be setting up its U.S. base in New Haven.

Looking to expand its American footprint, Nuritas executives explored a range of biotech centers on the East Coast over the last year. The New Haven area won out due to its skilled workforce and relatively low cost, plus the tight relationships between companies, state officials and industry groups, Khaldi said.

“We can see the results already,” Khaldi said, adding that her company has seen success in hiring for its planned lab and manufacturing operation in New Haven. Nuritas, which uses machine learning to identify peptides with promise to improve health, has 50 patents and 12 clinical trials in progress and has launched two peptide-based supplements in the U.S.

“The quality of the talent here is tremendous In Connecticut,” agreed 4Catalyzer Chief Medical Officer Dr. David Rosenthal. “And the cost is much lower than in Boston or San Francisco or New York.”

4Catalyzer, a cluster of eight companies in Branford founded by local biotech star Jonathan Rothberg, has hired more than 300 people since 2021, with two-thirds of them coming from within the state, Rosenthal said. 

Even with new biotech stars on the horizon, speakers at the summit took time to recognize startups of the past that have become major biotech players.

Alexion, now AstraZeneca's rare disease arm, has hired 50 people at its New Haven R&D center just since January and expects to soon outgrow its space at 100 College St, said Sharon Barr, senior vice president and head of research and product development.

“We are in countries all over the world – and that was before we were part of AstraZeneca – but we chose to plant our research organization here in New Haven and we continue to grow it,” Barr said. 

PHOTO | Liese Klein
Yale Ventures Managing Director Josh Geballe at the Yale Innovation Summit at the Omni New Haven Hotel on May 17, 2022.

Making one of the biggest splashes at Tuesday’s session was a pharma giant with its labs in the far reaches of the state – Pfizer. 

Pfizer made news earlier this month when it announced it would buy New Haven-based Biohaven for $11.6 billion and ramp up marketing of the company's migraine drug. Pfizer plans to continue its major plays in Connecticut, Site Affairs Lead Liz Power said.

Based in N.Y., Pfizer plans $40 million in improvements at its R&D center in Groton, the company’s largest such facility in the world, Power said. The company also plans to hire 100 additional workers for a new center in Groton devoted to the study of mRNA technology, used in the development of the company’s celebrated COVID-19 vaccine. 

Pfizer's clinical trial center in New Haven runs 60 studies a year and has 96,000 trial participants in the area, Power said. 

“Pfizer I think kind of views itself as an anchor store in the state and really likes that position because we like to be able to partner with new companies,” Power said. 

Enthusiasm for bioscience and startup growth in Connecticut was evident at the event, with top state officials including Gov. Ned Lamont and Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner David Lehman both on hand to discuss the state’s business development efforts.

“I’d like to think we're getting our mojo back,” Lamont said, mentioning Connecticut’s growing budget surplus and startup boom. “I think we’re getting our momentum back… I like to think that we have a new model for companies to take a look at the state.”

More than 1,400 people registered for the Yale Innovation Summit this year, the most ever in the event’s eight iterations, Yale Ventures Managing Director Josh Geballe said.

BioCT, the state's bioscience industry group, sponsored Tuesday's panel on the "State of the Life Science Industry."

A dozen aspiring entrepreneurs are scheduled to make pitches at the Innovation Summit on Wednesday, along with panels on the topics of “Trends in BioTech Investing” and “The Health System Innovation Revolution.”

Wednesday also promises discussions around identifying the next big things in innovation in the New Haven area, touching on local startup potential in fields like engineering, computer science and quantum computing. 

Contact Liese Klein at lklein@newhavenbiz.com.

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