For more than two decades, the Partnership Fund has played a key role in developing New York’s life sciences industry. By addressing critical gaps in real estate, research commercialization, and public investment, the Fund has helped shape New York into a growing hub for life sciences companies, researchers, and investors.
Laying the groundwork
Addressing the real estate gap
In 2001, the Partnership Fund conducted a market demand study to assess the potential for life sciences growth in New York City. The study confirmed a major challenge: the city lacked the commercial lab space necessary to support biotech and pharmaceutical companies.
The Fund spearheaded a public-private partnership across the major academic medical centers and city and state governments to address the need for lab space and establish the Alexandria Center for Life Science, which opened in 2010 as New York’s first major bioscience hub. The Fund committed $15 million to be invested alongside the developer as needed to help attract companies to the space. This effort provided the foundation for the industry’s growth by ensuring that companies had the infrastructure they needed to operate in New York.
Credit: Alexandria Center for Life Science
Filling the pipeline
Commercializing University Research
New York has long been home to world-class universities and research institutions, but historically, much of the groundbreaking biomedical research taking place in the city was not being translated into commercial ventures. Recognizing this gap, the Partnership Fund launched the BioAccelerate NYC Prize in 2009.
The program provided the first translational research funding in the city, supporting academic scientists with proof-of-concept funding and develop their work into viable businesses. The Fund invested $5 million in 20 scientists who went through the program, and an additional $6 million in five companies founded by BioAccelerate winners. The success of the program catalyzed the sector’s development, attracting an additional $70 million in translational funding from the city.
BioAccelerate Winner 2011
Scaling the industry
Securing Public Investment & Building an Ecosystem
By 2016, the life sciences sector in New York had grown, but additional challenges remained. The Partnership Fund, in collaboration with KPMG and industry experts, published a report titled New York’s Next Big Industry: Commercial Life Sciences, which outlined key barriers holding the industry back. The report identified four major gaps:
Space: The city still needed more affordable commercial lab space to accommodate growing companies.
Talent: There was a need for more entrepreneurs and startup leadership in life sciences.
Capital: Entrepreneurs needed additional early-stage capital willing to take high risk.
Promotion: The sector needed overall better connectivity within and promotion of the life sciences ecosystem.
In response, New York City and State have committed over $1.5 billion in public investment to support the sector. This funding helped expand lab space, provide tax incentives for startups, and establish new programs to support company formation.
Expanding early-stage support
Bringing IndieBio to New York
To further strengthen the city’s life sciences ecosystem, the Partnership Fund worked with New York State to incentivize venture fund SOSV to bring IndieBio, a leading life sciences accelerator, to New York in 2020. The accelerator provides early-stage startups with funding, mentorship, and lab space to help them develop their businesses.
Since launching, IndieBio has supported 50 companies, which have raised over $100 million in follow-on funding. To help retain these startups in New York, the Partnership Fund partnered with SOSV to provide capital to IndieBio graduates who chose to remain in the city, ensuring continued growth of the local ecosystem.
Credit: SOSV IndieBio
embodying our mission
Intra-Cellular Therapies Sells for $14.6B
The Fund made its first direct investment in life sciences in Intra-Cellular Therapies in 2006. Intra-Cellular Therapies was one of the first tenants in the newly built Alexandria Center and develops innovative treatments to improve the lives of individuals suffering from neuropsychiatric and neurologic disorders and reduce the burden on patients and their caregiver. Our early support helped commercialize Nobel Prize-winning research from Dr. Paul Greengards lab at Rockefller University, ensuring that this promising science — and its founder, Dr. Sharon Mates — remained rooted in New York City.
Intra-Cellular Therapies sold to J&J in 2024 for $14.6 billion, the first major exit of an NYC-based life sciences company, embodying the Fund’s efforts to advance world class biomedical research born in the city’s top academic institutions, keep talent anchored in the city, and build a thriving life sciences sector that creates lasting economic impact.
Impact
The life sciences sector has emerged as a meaningful contributor to the state and local economy and to the intellectual capital of New York. Looking ahead, the industry’s contribution to local employment, economic output, and business formation in the city and region will be increasingly important.
See the full timeline
See the full development timeline of the life sciences sector in NYC across the public, private, and academic institutions
