Bioceptive, a company working towards meeting the needs of women through a developing patent, took home the prize from the first annual Turner BioChallenge event. The New Orleans BioInnovation Center was responsible for awarding the company $5,000 and providing three months of free workspace. More than 70 members of the life science community showed their support at this event, including Mayor Landrieu.
“It’s exciting to see that this seed has not only taken root but it seems like we’re flying high,” said Mayor Landrieu. “What you’re doing here is transforming New Orleans.“
This announcement comes not long after Bioceptive was named one of the companies participating in the 2013 IDEAxcelerator program from the Idea Village. This provides more of the much-needed recognition for the mission the company is trying to achieve by developing a patent-pending IUD inserter that simplifies the insertion procedure and lowers risk. The other finalists of the Turner BioChallenge included Body Evolution, MiniVax, ReactWell and VoiceHIT.
“Over the past year, the commercialization team has facilitated business plan writing and company formation for nearly 40 ventures,” said the NOBIC’s Director of Commercialization, Jason Doherty. “Through this assistance our tenant companies collectively raised nearly $14 million in financing and $2 million in grant funding.”
Bioceptive will join 28 other tenants that have created over 47 full-time and 36 part-time positions. Since the center’s launch one year ago, these tenants have supported the local biotech industry while many have been succeeding.
“So what’s next?” asked Aaron Miscenich, President of the NOBIC. “We’re going to continue to help our universities expand their research base, we’ll continue to grow our life science community through programming and partnerships and we’re going to look outside of our local community to national and international firms to bring them to the local market.”