Like other major biotechnology companies, Biogen Idec Inc. has a cadre of talented scientists working feverishly to discover breakthrough drugs. Over the years, the Cambridge biotech has also made acquisitions, established a $105 million venture fund, and licensed promising technologies to build a pipeline of potential life-saving therapies.
Now, Biogen Idec is trying a new approach: setting up an incubator to help biotech start-ups get off the ground by providing them with funding, technical expertise, and office and laboratory space near its Kendall Square headquarters.
After spending more than a year getting the incubator ready, Biogen Idec plans to disclose today that it has signed up its first tenant, Escoublac, a new company based on research from a Columbia University researcher. It hopes to unveil its second tenant next month.
"We felt we needed to pursue another mechanism" to support early-stage companies, said Rainer Fuchs, executive director of the Biogen Idec Innovation Incubator.
As the biotech revolution matures, Biogen Idec and other companies are trying to find creative ways to get in on the ground floor of promising research developed outside their laboratories. A few, like Biogen Idec, are setting up corporate incubators. Pfizer Inc., the pharmaceutical giant, recently committed to spending up to $10 million a year on a new biotech incubator in La Jolla, Calif., near San Diego, and is considering setting up another incubator in Massachusetts or another biotech hot spot.
In addition, Genzyme Corp. of Cambridge said it is considering stepping up investments in young companies or setting up an incubator of its own.
"We'd love to be able to identify opportunities at an early stage," said Alan Walts, managing director of Genzyme Ventures. "We've been actively considering ideas on how we might establish some form of incubator complex."
Others are using a different strategy.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. plans today to say it has struck an unusual deal with Harvard University to fund research projects related to cancer, infectious diseases, and other areas Vertex is interested in - with few strings attached. The Cambridge biotech company said Harvard researchers will be able to publish their results freely and retain the rights to any technology they develop - something barred by some corporate research funders.
Even so, Vertex chief executive Joshua Boger, who earned his doctorate in chemistry at Harvard, said he hopes the project will help his company begin a "dialogue" with Harvard researchers working in areas that could be useful to Vertex's development efforts.
He said the company has already received dozens of proposals and decided to fund five of them, starting next year - committing a total of several million dollars over three years. If Harvard decides to license any technology developed, Vertex said it has the option to license it first. "It's a new model," Boger said.
Meanwhile, Fuchs said Biogen Idec hopes to house up to four or five companies in its biotech incubator within two years. But Fuchs said it's important to find good matches.
He said the company sifted through more than 100 ideas before settling on Escoublac, founded by Columbia Medical Center professor Gerard Karsenty, who has found links between bone biology and metabolism. The company hopes to pioneer new treatments for patients suffering from type 2 diabetes and obesity, which have been on the increase in the United States.
Fuchs said Biogen Idec plans to give each company in its incubator between $3 million and $10 million in seed funding over several years, dedicated office and laboratory space, administrative support, and technical expertise. In return, Biogen Idec will receive stock in the companies and an option to eventually buy the rest at a prenegotiated price.
Two local venture capitalists were enthusiastic about Biogen Idec's endeavor.
"I'm a big fan of what they are doing," said Terry McGuire, managing general partner of Polaris Venture Partners in Waltham. "There's always a shortage of capital for the early stage stuff."
Peter Feinstein, general partner of BioVentures Investors in Cambridge, said he thought Biogen Idec could help invigorate its research programs by bringing in entrepreneurs with new ideas.
"It like having puppies around an older dog," Feinstein said.
Walts, however, said one concern with a corporate incubator is that it could hurt start-ups' ability to work with other drug companies. So, he said, Genzyme is considering setting up a "virtual incubator" instead. Genzyme would provide seed funding and technical support to new ventures, but would not physically house the companies on its property. That way, the companies might be better able to forge their own identities.
Regardless, Walts said, Genzyme, Biogen Idec, and Vertex share a common goal: finding new ways to tap into early-stage drug research.
But biotech executives say it could take years to determine which approach works best.
Todd Wallack can be reached at twallack@globe.com.
