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Area biotech company may relocate to Ga.
By Matthew French
Staff Writer
Charleston may be losing one of its few home-grown biotech companies to the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta.
Speculation for the past several weeks has revolved around the future of CureSource Inc., a Charleston-based company that stores cryogenically frozen cord blood so that years later the blood’s stem cells can be used to treat cancer, diabetes, stroke or other diseases. The company currently calls the Port City Center on East Bay Street home but will soon have to move because the building is being converted into condominiums.
The company had been looking to stay in the area, but chief executive officer and co-founder Don DeLuca Jr. in July admitted the search for laboratory space in this area is “hell.”
The company is now in negotiations with the Medical College of Georgia to rent space in the college’s biosciences incubator, according to sources familiar with the circumstances.
DeLuca would not confirm that his company is in negotiations to relocate, but a source, who asked not to be named, says the company has been stymied in its local search for space.
“The company really would like to stay in the area, but they have to relocate and have been unable to identify a suitable alternative in the Charleston area,” the source says.
“The reality is this is what’s going to happen if the medical university, city and state don’t create some lab space. If this area wants to birth and keep (bio) companies here, it’s going to have to put its money where its mouth is.”
DeLuca said in a July interview with the Business Journal that moving the company could well lead to higher profits, but he likes the lifestyle of Charleton.
“I recognize that if we were located in another area, our growth would be tenfold,” DeLuca said. “We’re more the exception, but we made a conscious decision to sacrifice some of the business for the quality of life. That may not always be the case.”
Michael Gabridge, associate vice president for technology transfer and economic development for the Medical College of Georgia, says he has been in negotiations with more than one Charleston-area company about possibly relocating to the college’s biotech incubator but would not confirm that CureSource is one of those companies.
“We are working on closing several deals, including one with a stem cell company, a company that works in cryo-preservation and a biopharmaceutical company that is involved in cancer therapy,” Gabridge says. “We have not inked anything yet, and we’re obliged to confidentiality until the deal is closed. The most recent talks we’ve had will probably come to a decision by early fall.”
The incubator markets itself in targeted areas and responds to outside inquiries about available space. Resident companies get their own laboratories and clean rooms, two offices, scientific and office equipment, and access to mentors and advisors, Gabridge says.
The lack of available laboratory space has been decried as a major roadblock to establishing a viable biosciences cluster in the area.
Kenneth Roozen, former executive director of the Medical University of South Carolina Foundation for Research Development and current executive director for the Charleston Angel Partners, says the solution is akin to that of the chicken and the egg.
“If there’s space available, people will come to fill it,” he says. “If you have the space and provide access to capital, you will be taken more seriously. But then, if you have the people, you need to have the space to keep them. I’ve been advocating for a 40,000-square-foot incubator since I came to MUSC in 1997, and now I’m gone.”
Robert Pozner, interim executive director of the Medical University of South Carolina Foundation for Research Development, says that he has received communication from the president of MUSC in recent weeks that has directed him to look into forming a biosciences incubator or to find a suitable alternative.
“On the strategic side of my duties, an incubator is at the top of my list of priorities, and it’s been a point that I’ve been pressing with the administration since I got here (in July),” Pozner says.
“We are actively looking into ways of providing those types of facilities.”
CureSource isn’t the first biosciences company to look elsewhere for new accommodations. Micrus Endovascular Corp., a spin-off of MUSC, was forced to move elsewhere in 1997 because of the lack of qualified employees, venture funding and lab space in the region. The company, which moved to California, went public in June with a nearly $31 million initial public offering.
Matthew French is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail him at mfrench@charlestonbusiness.com.
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