After four weeks of competition, PHL Inno Madness has a champion. The Center for Breakthrough Medicines claimed the inaugural title in a tightly contested final matchup with Philadelphia real estate startup Houwzer.
Seeded No. 1 in the life sciences region of the bracket, the King of Prussia-based Center for Breakthrough Medicines (CBM) was one of the favorites to come through – and it did. The cell and gene therapy contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) was the only one of the four top seeds to survive beyond the second round of the competition.
"We are beyond excited to win the first annual Inno Madness title," said CBM Co-founder Audrey Greenberg. "We see ourselves as a very innovative CDMO and to get the title just further enhances the public perception of that and our understanding of who we really are in the cell and gene therapy CDMO business."
PHL Inno Madness launched on March 2 with 16 companies – selected from reader nominations and editorial input – divided into four regions: unicorns, life sciences, emerging growth, and up-and-comers.
The road to victory was fairly straightforward until that last matchup, with CBM claiming its life sciences quarter of the draw with comfortable wins over ExpressCells and then AscellaHealth. It came up against popular startup Philanthropi in the semifinals, but ultimately pulled out a win with 53% of the reader vote.
In the Inno Madness finals, it met No. 3 seed Houwzer, which was victorious in the emerging growth region of the bracket with help from a loyal following of supporters. The real estate tech startup recently raised a Series B round comprising $18 million in equity and a $100 million warehouse line of credit to fuel its rapid growth.
This year’s Inno Madness – a fun way to elevate tech-enabled startups in Greater Philadelphia – saw plenty of upsets. Houwzer was among the underdogs that shook up the bracket, and it looked for much of the finals like it would claim the crown. The company, helmed by CEO Mike Mayer, surged to an early lead before CBM mounted a late comeback. The margin of victory – determined by 3,766 reader votes – was 52% to 48%.
"Houwzer is a great organization. I think what they're doing is a game changer for real estate," Greenberg said.
Created out of the Discovery Labs in King of Prussia in 2020, the Center for Breakthrough Medicines is focused on improving outcomes for patients while also helping Greater Philadelphia build on and retain talent that might otherwise seek robust life sciences ecosystems in places like Boston, San Francisco and North Carolina.
In January, CBM landed a $350 million equity investment from South Korean conglomerate SK Inc., the goal of which is to create the world’s largest end-to-end cell and gene therapy CDMO. "We love their culture. We like their financial backing, and they're a great strategic partner and that they're investing in the space as well," Greenberg said.
CBM also announced in January that it had signed a collaboration agreement with the University of Pennsylvania’s gene therapy program for up to $100 million. In February, CBM followed that announcement with news of an agreement with BioAnalysis, a contract research organization in Philadelphia.
"We're seeing great momentum in terms of the venture capital funding and [National Institutes of Health] funding flowing into Philadelphia and to keep those companies here by having best class, GMP-grade manufacturing and CDMO services at the Center for Breakthrough Medicines is critical," Greenberg said.
To build that ecosystem even further, CBM is undertaking a 700,000-square-foot buildout in King of Prussia. As of now, 200,000 square feet is online. An additional 100,000 square feet focused on viral vector labs is expected to be ready in the second quarter of this year, and another 100,000 square feet of cell therapy suites and plasmid DNA production is expected by the end of 2022.
"We're a really important piece of the puzzle for the future of the state as well as for our country. Onboarding and onshoring manufacturing to the United States is going to be a critical hedge to any future pandemics and any future supply chain disruptions," Greenberg added.
As part of its growth, CBM anticipates hiring 2,000 workers over the course of four years, 400 of which it expects will come from its new analytical testing services laboratory, which debuted in February. At present, CBM has over 300 employees, Greenberg said.
