Business Weekly - Cambridge, UK

The trading arm of the Babraham Institute has begun an agreement with the Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO) to sponsor Japanese biotechs to move to the region.

It could be just the first step in BBT's international plans.

The contract is the initial development of plans being formulated by the Babraham incubator, which may see the numbers of ventures coming to the region soar.

As well as the Anglo-Japanese deal, Babraham is also in talks with other incubators in Europe, looking to further promote the area as destination of choice for biotech SMEs.

"We are trying to take the four main incubators that we were talk ing to, that have seed funds associated with them, and exploring ways of creating a side car fund to co-invest, perhaps using the European investment bank," revealed Babraham Bioscience Technologies' CEO, Dr David Hardman.

"We are interested in crossfertilising and cross funding early stage ventures around Europe in the biotech scene to be based in Babraham and other locations," he continued.

"We want to build on what we've done to date in the Cambridge area; we've been in talks in Brussels with various incubators around Europe to try to get this accomplished."

As the first move, BBT has attracted JETRO, the Japanese government's trade and investment relations organisation, to bring start-up or early stage ventures into the incubator, with the aim of returning experiences gained in the region back to Japan.

"Doing business and R & D internationally is the key to success for the Japanese bioindustry. With this aim in mind, JETRO has been promoting and encouraging collaboration between Cambridge, the best biocluster in Europe, and the Japanese bioindustry," said Atsushi Inoue, director general of JETRO London.

"We also expect that these Japanese bioventures will bring their precious experiences in Cambridge back to Japan and greatly contribute to the further development of the Japanese bioindustry."

JETRO will find SMEs interested in benefiting from exposure to Cambridge's bio-hub, and, dependent on the company satisfying criteria based on business plans and economic stability, will set in motion the steps required for a move to the area.

JETRO is offering to pay the first year's rental at the centre, around £10k per company, with the option to extend for another year if the match is successful.

Dr Hardman said he would be happy if the pact saw as many com panies come to the region as JETRO managed with a similar scheme in the US, which has seen 12 biotechs expand into the country in seven years.

"BBT would like to see one or two companies a year coming from Japan, which is about all we could cope with, because our facilities are pretty full," said Dr Hardman.

The agreement will also look to provide routes to funding for new bioventures from VCs or other resources in the UK or Japan and promote co-development partnerships.

Dr Hardman said: "This agreement comes at a time when BBT is looking to promote knowledge transfer into the Greater Cambridge region to further enhance development of its technology capital.

"Our hope would also be that Japanese companies coming here would be looking to grow their companies, and the incubator space, so we'd take an active role in trying to grow the companies." This is the first such agreement reached by JETRO in Europe and is based on the successful US model, which has supported the establishment of 66 Japanese technology ventures in the US, including the 12 bioventures.

It also represents BBT's first step in internationalising its successful bioincubation for start-up and early-stage biomedical ventures based on the Babraham Research Campus.

"We are in a position to develop interactions, and while I doubt that we'll become an international incubator in the sense of taking our model elsewhere, we're likely to increase the input of ventures coming to Cambridge," said Dr Hardman.

"This Agreement should increase the diversity of the technology platforms being developed on the Campus and we look forward to the arrival of the first Japanese venture to add to the 30 ventures currently in residence."