Johnson & Johnson Opens its Third Regional Innovation Center

New Brunswick, N.J.-based Johnson & Johnson Inc. (JNJ) has opened the third of four major regional hubs it has planned for the world’s leading life-science hotspots. This new innovation center is in Boston, Mass., and its goal is to advance healthcare by starting collaborations in science and technology between regional innovators and the JNJ family of companies across a diverse spectrum of startup opportunities.

The Boston Innovation Center is home to a team of business, science and transaction experts who are focused on identifying and building novel collaborations with emerging companies, entrepreneurs and academic centers across eastern North America.

“The East Coast’s significance as a hotbed for life sciences innovation grounded in collaboration is indisputable, and continues to grow,” said Paul Stoffels, M.D., JNJ’s chief scientific officer and worldwide chairman of its pharmaceuticals division. “With the establishment of our Boston Innovation Center, we look forward to further fostering collaboration with some of the world’s leading scientists, renowned academic centers, and influential entrepreneurs to enable future innovations that will advance human health.”

Representatives of Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation, the venture capital subsidiary of JNJ, are located at the Boston Innovation Center to identify and invest in external opportunities.

“In Massachusetts, we invest in the life-sciences because we are choosing to shape our own future,” said Massachusetts’ Governor Deval Patrick, who is actively involved with encouraging the life-sciences industry in the commonwealth. “I welcome the Johnson & Johnson Innovation center to our life-sciences super-cluster and look forward to the jobs and economic opportunities that their new collaborations will bring.”

JNJ also announced the first few collaborations the center has in the works. It has established a research alliance with The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai to research next-generation therapies for inflammatory bowel disease; invested in Rodin Therapeutics, a biotechnology company focused on applying insights of epigenetics to advance novel therapeutics for neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease; invested in Vedanta Biosciences in order to advance a new class of therapies that modulate pathways of interaction between the human microbiome and the host immune system; and expanded Janssen Labs to Cambridge, Mass., which marks the first East Coast expansion for the JNJ pharmaceutical lab headquartered in San Diego, Calif.

“We are thrilled to officially open the doors to the Boston Innovation Center today, deepening our long-held commitment to supporting this vibrant life science ecosystem,” said Robert Urban, Ph.D., newly appointed chief of the center. “We look forward to serving as a single point of entry for innovators to efficiently and creatively explore relationships and investment opportunities across the Johnson & Johnson family of companies, with the ultimate goal of bringing new innovations to improve health and patient care.”

The fist innovation center planned by JNJ was opened in London, United Kingdom in March. The second was a center in California that opened in early June, and a fourth is planned to open in Shanghai, China, by the end of the year. Each city was selected for its robust life-sciences community, which according to JNJ provides a rich environment for identifying investment, in-licensing and collaboration opportunities.