Italy gets its first biotechnology cluster

Bioindustry Park Canavese and Eporgen Venture have announced the start-up of six new biotechnology companies, as result of the joint project Discovery.

The enterprise involves €3m of private capital, €2.7m of public investment, and 18 researchers from academia and state research centres who have become entrepreneurs.

The companies have established their headquar-ters in the bioincubator, created by the Bioindustry Park with the support of the Piedmont Region Authority. The companies - BioNucleon, Biopaint, Eicosamed, Narvalus, Spider Biotech and Target Heart - operate in the molecular biology technologies applicable to industrial processes, chemical, and environmental sectors.

The main funding for the enterprise is the capital provided by Eporgen Venture, which has a shareholding of between 60% and 76% in each company, with the remaining quota being held by the neo-entrepreneurs. The share capital of the companies is between €10,000 and €100,000. In order to guarantee ongoing development of the projects, Eporgen will be investing equity of €250,000-600,000 in each company over the next three years.

Eporgen was set up in 2004 by private investors to finance new biotechnology companies based on highly innovative projects with international scientific relevance. 'Eporgen Venture is the first example of an Italian seed capital company managed by private businessmen with a view to development,' said presi-dent Silvano Fumero. 'Our company is committed to providing neo-entrepreneurs with both financial resources and a broad support network of managerial, marketing and business development competences.

'This achievement confirms Piedmont as one of the most active Italian regions within the biotechnology sector,' he added. 'With these new companies and the four already constituted in the Bioindustry Park, we can say that we have created the first biotechnology cluster in Italy.'