The Oregon Bioscience Incubator on Portland's South Waterfront recently lost a high-flying tenant, but that’s a good thing.
The point of the state’s first bioscience incubator is to cultivate startups in the biosciences in hopes that they will develop their technology, outgrow their small lab-office space and expand elsewhere.
Such was the case for Vir Biotechnology, a commercial-stage immunology company focused on treating and preventing serious infectious diseases. Vir is moving to the Riverside Centre building, a two-minute drive away from OBI, also on the South Waterfront.
Vir’s new space encompasses about 7,000 rentable square feet that will be 60-40 lab space and office space, said Carly Scaduto, senior director of media relations for Vir. The company is headquartered in San Francisco but has longstanding ties to Portland.
Vir’s current development pipeline consists of product candidates targeting Covid-19, hepatitis B, influenza A and HIV. The company began generated revenue last year with its first approved product for the early treatment of Covid, Scaduto said. Vir’s four technology platforms are designed to stimulate and enhance the body’s own immune system.
Vir licensed a vaccine platform and acquired the OHSU spinoff TomegaVax in late 2016 based on research begun in the lab of Dr. Louis Picker more than two decades ago.
“The Vir team in Portland is working to leverage the unique immunology of human cytomegalovirus, or HCMV, a commonly occurring virus in humans, as a delivery vehicle – or vector – for vaccines to potentially treat and prevent infection by pathogens that don’t respond to current vaccine technologies,” Scaduto said.
The OBI incubator, meanwhile, should have no trouble replacing Vir, as it has had a waiting list since its founding in 2013. OBI is home to 28 startups currently, with up to seven more slated to join once a buildout of additional space is complete.
Among the current tenants are Hemex Health, Madorra and Sonivate Medical Technologies.
OTRADI, which launched and runs the incubator, received a $500,000 grant about a year ago from Business Oregon to build out the 3,300-square-foot addition, which will be ready next month, said Executive Director Heather Ellis.
While Vir is the latest OBI graduate, it's not the only one since since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Last year, another longtime tenant, Aronora Inc., which is developing cardiovascular drugs, also outgrew its OBI space.
“Between Vir and Aronora graduating and the new space, we’re getting to point where we’ve fulfilled our waiting list, but continue to get applications from new tenants and residents about every other week,” Ellis said. “We have a couple in the pipeline.”
