Launching a biotech startup in Chicago has never been easier. That’s in part due to all of the local support and infrastructure — including Fulton Labs, Lincoln Yards, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative's future $250 million biohub and all the new lab space that's been developed in the city the past few years — that’s now in place to help more young entrepreneurs go from developing a new technology to commercializing it.
This is especially true for the researchers — both students and faculty — working at the University of Illinois System’s Discovery Partners Institute. The collaboration between the top research universities in the city is designed to help grow Chicago’s tech ecosystem through job training and applied research and development.
The institute adds "a whole new dimension" to what the University of Illinois and partner institutions can bring to the table to develop new technologies and discoveries that faculty are making, said Michael Flavin, Ph.D., a research professor at UIC and staff member at the Discovery Partners Institute.
Just this week, Selagine Inc., a spinout company from the University of Illinois College of Medicine, announced a partnership with Grifols (Nasdaq: GRFS), a European drugmaker, that will help advance the development and commercialization of a new treatment for dry eye disease, a condition that affects more than 100 million people globally.
In a human pilot clinical trial, the treatment — immunoglobulin eye drops — caused significant reduction in signs and symptoms when used twice a day for eight weeks.
Initial developmental work for these antibody-based biologic eye drops was performed at the UIC College of Medicine, led by UIC field professor of ophthalmology Sandeep Jain, M.D., the founder and president of Selagine. His work was supported by UI Health Pharmacy, and is the outcome of more than a decade of research and development efforts, with grant funding from the National Eye Institute, the National Institutes of Health, Research to Prevent Blindness and UIC’s Office of Technology Management.
"There’s been more of an emphasis from the local universities and other support mechanisms around town like Matter and 1871 to help train and mentor faculty as they begin their startup process," Flavin told Chicago Inno. "I teach a course at UIC called scientific entrepreneurship to graduate students where I try to teach about startups especially as it applies to biotech. It’s a 15-week course and I think the students are getting more excited about entrepreneurship. I see enrollment increase every year and I see a level of interest I haven’t seen before."
Flavin's job is to help bring discoveries being made in faculty laboratories to the marketplace and has helped several drug discovery and development companies over the past 30 years launch in Chicago, including some that have gone from startup to IPO. He described Jain as the “perfect example” of a physician scientist entrepreneur who is successfully commercializing his technology, and estimated that Grifols’s commitment would be around $80 million over the next few years.
He expects the product to be developed through clinical trails before ultimately go in front of the FDA for approval by early 2029.
