This story is part of CNBC’s quarterly Cities That Succeed series, which explores cities that have transformed into business hubs that are entrepreneurial and attract capital, companies and employees.
The Denver-Boulder region is quickly emerging as a major center for the life sciences industry, attracting companies developing cutting-edge medical and technology.
Life science research aims to understand living things from cells to Earth to improve health, food and the environment. Funding growth is driven by a variety of factors: a surge in venture capital and government funding, a collaborative research environment, and a booming market for lab space.
BioMed Realty CEO Tim Schoen spoke with CNBC during a tour of a construction site that will be converted into state-of-the-art laboratory space.
CNBC
San Diego-based BioMed Realty, a major real estate company (acquired by Blackstone for $8 billion in 2016), acquired the Flatiron complex in Boulder, Colorado, for a record-breaking $625 million in 2022 Park, making headlines. One million square feet in 23 buildings is being converted into laboratory and technical space to meet the region’s growing needs.
“This is the logical next step…to invest in Boulder and expand,” said Tim Schoen, president and CEO of BioMed Realty. “Boulder has all the ingredients for an innovation ecosystem — research universities, scientists , venture capital, and ourselves in providing mission-critical infrastructure.”
In addition to Boulder, the company operates in five other core life sciences and technology markets, including San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, the Boston and Cambridge areas of Massachusetts, and Cambridge, UK
Enveda Biosciences is a biotech company occupying lab space in Boulder.
CNBC
According to commercial real estate group CBRE, 14 companies are seeking a cumulative 506,000 square feet of lab space through 2023 in the Denver-Boulder market, which includes the neighboring city of Aurora.Additionally, 370,000 square feet of laboratory space in the Denver-Boulder market is completed and ready for occupancy Another 560,000 square feet is under construction or renovation.
“I think Boulder is unique and explosive. Unique from the standpoint that it’s in the foothills of the Rockies,” Schon said. “From the standpoint of how the ecosystem has really grown and expanded over the last decade. Look, it’s explosive.”
Funds are increasing
Investors are taking notice.
“Investors from Colorado and other coastal areas see an opportunity here,” said Elyse Blazevich, president and CEO of the Colorado Bioscience Association. “Our ecosystem has raised more than $1 billion in funding over the past seven consecutive years. And early-stage funding growth in Colorado is outpacing other life sciences markets nationwide in 2023.”
The Biosciences Association was founded in 2003 to support the development of life sciences, focusing on access to capital, education, networking and more.
Blazevich said there will be an increase in pre-seed, Series A and Series B funding from 2022 to 2023. Among them, Series A and Series B financing increased the most, with an annual increase of US$53 million, or 28%. Pre-seed funding (the earliest stage of venture capital) grew by $18 million during this period, a 163% surge.
A recent report from CBRE found that Denver-Boulder is the largest life sciences real estate market in the United States, driven by: Record venture capital investment and the National Institutes of Health.
The report also found that the region’s growth rate of qualified talent in life sciences is well above the national average, growing 35% over the past five years, compared with 16% growth in the United States overall.
Entrepreneurship success
The recent surge in venture capital flowing into Denver-Boulder builds on the region’s successful record over the past several decades.
In 1998, entrepreneur Kevin Koch co-founded biotechnology company Array BioPharma in Boulder.The company was acquired by Pfizer in 2019 for $10.64 billion, and Koch is now co-founder and CEO of the clinical-stage startup fringe therapy.
Edgewise develops treatment for rare muscle disease, net revenue of $186.1 million initial public offering March 2021.
But the company started small.
“We’re in an incubator at the University of Colorado. We bring in talent from the University of Colorado,” Koch told CNBC. “We have interns come in who eventually become employees.”
A scientist at Edgewise Therapeutics in Boulder, Colorado, is focused on developing treatments for rare muscle diseases.
CNBC
Today, Edgewise has even more space in Boulder: 28,000 square feet total, and half of its 93 employees work in city offices. The company plans to expand operations and hire more workers in the coming years.
Koch said the Boulder area’s history of research into DNA and RNA in the 1980s was key to developing protein-based drugs to fight disease, which helped attract capital to the life sciences center.
“(This study) focuses investment in the Boulder area,” he said. “Now, the companies that are commercializing these products, they’re reinvesting in Boulder.”
With the help of top venture capital firms, Edgewise Therapeutics has raised more than $500 million – with a cash runway of $550 million by 2027.
“We think Boulder is really the right place. And I think that’s proven to be the case. We’ve been able to attract a lot of great talent,” Koch said.
Research power
Denver-Boulder’s innovation ecosystem is generating ideas at a rapid pace.
Aurora, Denver’s largest suburb, is a center for life science research: a 256-acre complex that is home to the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, which receives $700 million in annual grants.
Dan LaBarbera is professor of pharmacy and founding director of the School of Medicine’s Center for Drug Discovery.
“The goal of our drug discovery center is to serve as a bridge to move innovation from academia to industry and then to the clinic,” LaBarbera told CNBC.
A look inside the Drug Discovery Center at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, which is led by Dr. Dan LaBarbera (right) and is designed to accelerate the process from drug discovery to getting medicines to patients.
CNBC
Established in 2021, the center uses state-of-the-art technology such as robotics and 3D bioprinters to develop drugs to treat diseases ranging from cancer to Alzheimer’s disease.
“I think people are generally familiar with 3D printers because they can print on plastic or even metal,” LaBarbera said. “We are using very similar technologies to print complex tissues that mimic aspects of human disease.”
Historically, it took about 10 to 15 years for a drug to go from discovery to FDA approval.
“Now we can use this technology to speed up the process so that it takes about six to eight years,” LaBarbera said.
The center helps shorten the time from drug discovery to treatment, helping new and existing companies get breakthrough medicines to patients faster.
“Our goal is not to compete with the pharmaceutical industry,” LaBarbera said. “Our goal is actually to work with them to develop really innovative potential drug therapies.”
WATCH: The “Successful City” special featuring Denver and Boulder will air on CNBC on April 11 at 10 p.m. ET.
About The Author
