One Hundred Companies Later, Pasadena’s Biotech Incubator Is Still Giving Lab Space Away — Without Taking a Cent

For 22 years, the Pasadena BioCollaborative Incubator has operated on a principle that most of the startup world would consider strange: give early-stage biotech companies affordable lab space, share your equipment, help them find mentors and interns — and ask for nothing in return. No equity. No royalties. No ownership stake.

That model has now produced 100 companies.

The latest is VelvEtch, a startup developing bio-compatible polymers with applications in drug delivery systems, implantable sensors, and neural interface technologies. Its arrival as the 100th tenant puts a number on two decades of quiet, unglamorous institution-building in a city perhaps better known for Caltech and JPL. On Wednesday, during Innovate Pasadena’s Connect Week, the City of Pasadena will join in marking the milestone at a public event at the incubator’s Pasadena address.

“Pasadena’s life sciences sector continues to be a cornerstone of the city’s innovation economy,” said David Klug, the city’s Economic Development Director. “The Pasadena BioCollaborative Incubator plays a critical role in supporting early-stage companies and advancing breakthrough technologies.”

The incubator — known as PBC, and located at 2265 E. Foothill Blvd. — opened in 2004 as a 500-square-foot lab, backed by a pair of state legislative allocations that California Sen. Jack Scott had brokered and then-Mayor Bill Bogaard had championed. The goal was precise: give scientists without university affiliations somewhere to work, and give Pasadena a life sciences economy that could outlast any single grant cycle or federal contract.

It grew. By 2020, PBC had expanded to more than 12,600 square feet. By 2021, it had incubated 81 companies, according to the Los Angeles Business Journal, with 25 of them scaling into larger operations. Among those was Calimmune Inc., a gene therapy company that grew inside PBC before being acquired by CSL Behring in 2017 for $400 million, according to the LA Business Journal.

“This is an exciting moment not only for our incubator, but for the broader scientific community we serve,” said Eric Duyshart, PBC’s president. “We are grateful for companies and institutional partners that have been a part of our journey of supporting entrepreneurs and training individuals pursuing careers in a laboratory.”

The Wednesday celebration is part of a two-stop Deep Tech Crawl. It begins at PBC at 4:30 p.m. and continues at Scaled Science Partners, a nearby innovation space at 2672 E. Walnut St., at 6 p.m. The event will also honor Dr. Robert “Bud” Bishop, who served as PBC president for roughly a decade before stepping down and helped guide the incubator through much of its growth.

Connect Week, organized by the city’s Economic Development Division and Innovate Pasadena, runs through Thursday. “Connect Week is about strengthening connections across Pasadena’s innovation ecosystem,” said Innovate Pasadena Chairman Mike Giardello. “From students and startups to established companies and world-class research institutions, this week showcases the community that makes Pasadena a unique innovation hub.”

Registration for the Deep Tech Crawl and all other Connect Week events is available at Luma.com/InnovatePasadena.