NEW YORK CITY—A key facet of Mayor Bill de Blasio's $500-million effort to create a life sciences campus either on the East Side or in Long Island City has been realized with the formation of the Mayor's Life Sciences Advisory Council.

The mayor announced on Dec. 13, 2016 the LifeSci NYC initiative that seeks to develop a new “Applied Life Sciences Campus” that would mirror the successful Cornell-Tech model. The city has stated its preference to develop the campus either on the East Side or in neighboring Long Island City.

On Monday, the New York City Economic Development Corp. announced it had named the council's co chairs Vicki Sato, professor, management practice, Harvard Business School and Harold Varmus, professor, Weill Cornell Medicine; associate member, New York Genome Center.

“The formation of the Life Sciences Advisory Council moves us one step closer to establishing New York City as a global leader in life sciences research and innovation,” says NYCEDC president and CEO James Patchett. “We're fortunate to receive the guidance of so many industry leaders as we execute on this $500-million effort, which will create thousands of good jobs for New Yorkers.”

The LifeSci NYC initiative has a goal of having the city develop a new Applied Life Science Campus, totaling 2.8 million square feet of new commercial lab space. The campus would also provide training programs for workers, and facilitate collaboration between the city's leading medical research institutions, pharmaceutical companies, startups, venture capital firms, and philanthropies. The initiative is expected to create 16,000 jobs and 1,000 paid internships.

Other members of the newly formed council are: Judy Dunn, global head, clinical development and head, Roche Innovation Center; Tony Evnin, partner, Venrock; Kevin Gardner, director of structural biology initiative, CUNY Advanced Science Research Center; Margaret (Peggy) Hamburg, foreign secretary, National Academies of Science, Engineering & Medicine; David Hirsh, chairman, New York Structural Biology Center, professor, Columbia University; Rick Lifton, president, the Rockefeller University; Lita Nelsen, former head, MIT Technology Licensing Office; Claire Pomeroy, president & CEO, Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation; Jim Simons, chair, Simons Foundation; Mary Tanner, senior managing director, Evolution Life Science Partners; Nancy Thornberry, CEO, Kallyope; Fred Wilson, partner, Union Square Ventures and George Yancopoulos, founder and chief scientific officer, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.

The key points of the LifeSci NYC plan, in addition to forming the mayor's council, include: $100 million to create a new Applied Life Sciences Campus, provide $50 million to expand the network of life sciences R&D facilities, spend $10 million to expand the network of incubators for life sciences start-up facilities, commit $20 million a year in matching funds to support early-stage businesses, invest $7.5 million to create internships and life sciences curricula and commit $300 million in tax incentives to attract investment in commercial lab space for life sciences businesses.

The plan also calls for modernizing land use policies to encourage new space for life sciences firms, providing $7.5 million to create a Life Sciences Management Corps., and another $3.8 million to expand training programs for entrepreneurs.

New York

Instant Insights /

New Council to Bolster Mayor's $500M Life Sciences Plan

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