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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Amgen Seeks Local Talent With Ticket

Amgen Inc. for the first time will sponsor BioLabs LA at the Lundquist Institute, a biotech co-working space in Torrance, via a three-year Golden Ticket program.The program is a boon for local biotech startups, as Amgen execs will look to choose winners from the region.“We strongly prefer to award within the local ecosystem,” said Dr. Philip Tagari, vice president of therapeutic discovery at Amgen. “Even with our virtual activities in the last year, we still see there’s an enormous benefit to some degree of co-location. Our intent is to foster an ecosystem, a genuine ecosystem and that does benefit a lot from proximity.”Through the program, Thousand Oaks-based Amgen will launch one Golden Ticket award each year of its sponsorship, providing the winning startup with one year of lab space at BioLabs LA and access to lab infrastructure, programming and business development mentorship.Added Tagari: “It’s mildly ironic that Amgen was founded as a highly innovative enterprise in Southern California and yet it’s not really supported really early innovation around our own facility. We’ve been more active in Cambridge, Massachusetts and San Francisco, and even Toronto, so it’s kind of an overdue activity.”Amgen plans to announce winners within the next couple months, and the company is shoring up details for applicants, a spokesperson for the Thousand Oaks biotech giant said.Selection isn’t limited to a particular field, Tagari said, but rather focuses on promising research.“(Awards are) solely based on the quality of innovation that we see, quality of the science and the business plan. We’ve invested in companies that had distinct medical devices, aerosol devices for administering proteins … bio and therapeutics too,” explained Tagari.For the winners, an Amgen Golden Ticket is a definite talking point when seeking capital. An Amgen scientist assigned to each winner will help them craft their “Shark Tank pitch,” Tagari said, and the biotech giant’s venture team will help with business plans and financials.“(It’s) often seen as an attractive endorsement for angel investors and venture capitalists and other funding sources,” he added.BioLabs LA at the Lundquist Institute is located at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.

The sponsorship’s monetary value was not disclosed.

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