INDIANAPOLIS – Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) today announced plans to open its first-ever Lilly Gateway Labs location in San Diego, Calif. in the first half of 2024. Gateway Labs is Lilly’s shared innovation accelerator that provides participating companies with state-of-the-art lab space and unique access to Lilly scientists, researchers and executives, as well as exposure to Lilly’s functional and scientific expertise. This will be the company’s third Gateway Labs location, with additional sites located in San Francisco and Boston.
“We are excited to expand our footprint in San Diego as it is home to a thriving life sciences community,” said Daniel Skovronsky, M.D., Ph.D., chief scientific officer, and president, Lilly Research Laboratories. “By providing lab space and access to Lilly’s scientific expertise, we can support scientists from research institutes, universities and small biotech companies as they work to discover the next generation of medicines for patients.”
Companies located at Gateway Labs have the opportunity to collaborate with Lilly and each other on research of mutual interest, participate in shared learning and scientific symposia with Lilly experts and partners, and have the potential for financial investment directly from Lilly, venture capital funds, or both. In partnership with Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc. (ARE), the new site will merge Lilly’s scientific expertise with ARE’s operational excellence to create a world-class facility.
The new site will be located in Alexandria’s University Town Center (UTC) campus, and offer nearly 62,000 square feet of rentable, flexibly-designed lab space, as well as open workstations for fostering scientific exchange and collaboration among participating companies. It is expected to accommodate 10 companies and more than 120 biotech and Lilly employees.
“Lilly has been supporting early-phase external innovation for decades, and we are excited to continue to expand our Gateway Labs shared innovation spaces to a larger network of life science startups” said Julie Gilmore, Ph.D., vice president, and global head of Gateway Labs. “The expansion of our Gateway Labs model will grant scientists access to Lilly’s research operations, mentorship and expertise in an environment made to foster scientific breakthroughs.”