NYC Biotech Gets Investment Boost

The investment arms of Pfizer, Eli Lilly & Co., and Johnson & Johnson are among contributors to a $51 million fund raised by Seattle-based Accelerator Corp., which plans to use it to nurture emerging biotech firms in New York City. Accelerator will be based at the Alexandria Center for Life Science, located in the city’s East Side Medical Corridor. Pfizer and Lilly have operations at the Alexandria Center, as does Roche. However, the nascent research hub has been less successful in attracting the smaller firms common in other biotech centers. Accelerator says it has nurtured a dozen early-stage biotech firms in Seattle and seeks to replicate that effort in New York.