Johnson & Johnson Innovation Announces JPOD @ Philadelphia to Accelerate Healthcare Innovation in Philadelphia's Ecosystem

PHILADELPHIA, July 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Johnson & Johnson Innovation LLC today announced agreement to launch the Johnson & Johnson Innovation, JLABS (JLABS) JPOD @ Philadelphia (JPOD @ Philadelphia) in collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) to accelerate healthcare innovation and commercialization in Philadelphia and beyond.

The JPOD, located within the University of Pennsylvania's Pennovation Center, a two-year-old full-service business and technology incubator, is a networking hub which includes a secure telecommunications conferencing system to connect regional innovators to the Johnson & Johnson Innovation network. The goal of the JPOD is to identify and accelerate the development of early-stage healthcare solutions from the Philadelphia region's life science ecosystem that address significant unmet patient and consumer needs in medical devices, pharmaceuticals, consumer and health technologies. The JPOD will also support those innovators with training, mentoring and networking programs designed to equip them with a mix of resources to help enable their success.

To catalyze the search for entrepreneurs fostering the next-generation breakthroughs in health innovation, JLABS, in collaboration with Pennovation, will launch the JPOD @ Philadelphia QuickFire Challenge. The individuals or teams who submit the most promising solutions will be given an award to further accelerate their innovations. The winners will also have access to educational programs and mentoring from the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies global network of experts. The JPOD @ Philadelphia QuickFire Challenge will be launched on the Johnson & Johnson Innovation, JLABS website soon at https://jlabs.jnjinnovation.com/quickfire-challenges.

"Healthcare innovators are mission driven, smart and ambitious, but their game-changing ideas have a long, risky and expensive journey to reach the patients and consumers. By providing access to the expertise and resources of the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies, we hope the innovators in Philadelphia and across Pennsylvania will increase their probability of making a difference for all of us," said Melinda Richter, Global Head, Johnson & Johnson Innovation, JLABS.

The JPOD @ Philadelphia is the first JPOD that Johnson & Johnson Innovation has opened in the United States, following the announcement of the first JPOD in Alberta, Canada (JPOD @ Alberta), which was announced in 2017 in collaboration with the University of Alberta in 2017.

About Johnson & Johnson Innovation 
Johnson & Johnson Innovation LLC focuses on accelerating all stages of innovation worldwide and forming collaborations between entrepreneurs and Johnson & Johnson's global healthcare businesses. Johnson & Johnson Innovation provides scientists, entrepreneurs and emerging companies with one-stop access to science and technology experts who can facilitate collaborations across the pharmaceutical, medical device and consumer companies of Johnson & Johnson. Under the Johnson & Johnson Innovation umbrella of businesses, we connect with innovators through our regional Innovation Centers; Johnson & Johnson Innovation | JLABS; Johnson & Johnson Innovation ? JJDC, Inc.; and our business development teams to create customized deals and novel collaborations that speed development of innovations to solve unmet needs in patients. JLABS provides the laboratories, expertise, education, tools and resources needed to help life science startups thrive, all with no strings attached. A Johnson & Johnson Innovation Center for Device Innovation at the Texas Medical Center (CDI @ TMC) has been established to accelerate the development of medical devices. For more information about Johnson & Johnson Innovation, please visit: www.jnjinnovation.com.

About Johnson & Johnson Innovation, JLABS
Johnson & Johnson Innovation| JLABS (JLABS) is a global network of open innovation ecosystems, enabling and empowering innovators across a broad healthcare spectrum including pharmaceutical, medical device, consumer and health tech sectors to create and accelerate the delivery of life-saving, life-enhancing health and wellness solutions to patients around the world. JLABS achieves this by providing the optimal environment for emerging companies to catalyze growth and optimize their research and development by opening them to vital industry connections, delivering entrepreneurial programs and providing a capital-efficient, flexible platform where they can transform the scientific discoveries of today into the breakthrough healthcare solutions of tomorrow. At JLABS, we value great ideas and are passionate about removing obstacles to success to help innovators unleash the potential of their early scientific discoveries. JLABS is a no-strings-attached model, which means entrepreneurs are free to develop their science while holding on to their intellectual property. JLABS also produces campaigns to seek out the best science called QuickFire Challenges. For more information, visit www.jlabs.jnjinnovation.com or follow @JLABS. 

SOURCE Johnson & Johnson Innovation