A regional economic initiative to bring biomedical innovations to market was awarded a $250,000 economic development grant from National Grid.
The Biomedical Acceleration and Commercialization Center (BACC) at Albany Medical College received a grant from National Grid to provide direct financial assistance to BACC biomedical start-up companies for commercialization needs and access to experts. It will also help support the BACC’s entrepreneurs in the arenas of clinical trials, prototype development, marketing and hiring consultants for regulatory needs, officials said.
Funding will also assist in expanding the scope of the responsibilities and impact of the entrepreneur-in-residence, who serves as a mentor and advisor for BACC companies, according to Albany Med.
“National Grid’s support is vitally important to advancing the region’s economic development and expansion as a biomedical research hub and to build a commercialization pipeline in the Capital Region,” said James J. Barba, president and CEO at Albany Med. “Partners like National Grid help the BACC bring our region’s sustainable life sciences ecosystem to the next level, and we thank this forward-thinking company for its generosity.”
National Grid offers several different economic development grants to regional businesses and business supporters that help grow opportunity in upstate New York.
“As a utility, many people are unaware of the support we give to initiatives like the BACC at Albany Medical College,” said Regional Director Laurie Poltynski. “Working with projects like this allows us to support the community we provide services to every day and the region where many of our employees call home.”
One of the BACC’s start-up companies, Somml Health, is developing its Connex platform, which delivers real-time health information and communication between patients and care teams to improve patient health and lower health care costs, said Kurt Lozier, president and CEO of Somml Health. The company is currently working on a pilot for the managed care market.
“Through National Grid’s grant in support of the BACC, Somml Health will be able to accelerate our entry into the market by using knowledge experts and consultants in fields such as branding, customer experience and financial modeling,” said Lozier.
