SALT LAKE CITY, April 30, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Altitude Lab and the Small Business Administration (SBA) are pleased to announce Horizon, a commercialization program to connect startups to distributors, biopharma partners, and strategic investors in major biotech hubs nationwide, providing education on deal structures while driving awareness of Altitude Lab's resident startups. The program is funded by a Stage One grant from the SBA, which Altitude Lab secured last week alongside 60 other top incubator and accelerator programs across the country.

"Most biotech startups require commercial partnerships to bring their therapies and innovations to patients and customers. While life science is the fastest-growing sector in Utah, connecting to biopharma and global distributors remains a major hurdle. Horizon aims to close this gap by bringing our entrepreneurs to established biotech hubs and developing lasting relationships with national strategic partners," said Chandana Haque, Executive Director at Altitude Lab.

To help connect and drive Horizon forward, Altitude has formed initial partnerships with industry leaders, including Wilson Sonsini Goodrich (WSGR) and The Utah Innovation Fund, to support its launch this fall. 

"Altitude Lab's receipt of the Small Business Administration Growth Fund Accelerator Grant underscores their dedication to advancing innovation in Utah's biotech sector. It’s truly exciting to see this award go to Altitude Lab and we eagerly anticipate the positive impact the Horizon program will have on fostering vital partnerships and driving progress. Congratulations to Altitude Lab on this well-deserved achievement!" said Marla Trollan, Utah Director of the U.S. Small Business Administration. 

"The Utah Innovation Fund is unique in that it is a state-sponsored venture fund designed to help our deep tech entrepreneurs bridge the gap between technology feasibility and commercial success. Horizon is a program that naturally fits our mission, and we are thrilled to help Altitude connect Utah's leading startups to critical partners," said Gabi Tellez, Managing Director of the Utah Innovation Fund. 

"Wilson Sonsini launched our Salt Lake City practice because we've noted the state's huge strides in economic activity. We've been working with Altitude to help their startups navigate partnership agreements and IP strategy for three years. Supporting Horizon by helping Altitude and its startup connect with our national network is a continuation of the investment we are making in the region," said Matt Bresnahan, Partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.

The Horizon Program offers numerous benefits for founders, including:

• Roadshow tours in San Francisco, Southern California, Boston, and other leading biotech geographies offer unique opportunities to connect innovators with commercial partners
• Reverse pitches from biopharma and distributors to explore partnership opportunities
• Increased deal exposure, opportunities, and access to new executive networks for mentoring
• Facilitated meetings and networking opportunities with partners

Altitude is preparing for its first roadshows this fall and is seeking commercial partners and entrepreneurial organizations to host regional dinners and participate as mentors. Take the first step towards transformative innovation in health care by joining us on this exciting journey. Email info@altitudelab.org with your interest in Horizon as the subject line to be included in the initial tours.

About Altitude Lab

Altitude Lab is building a new, diverse generation of founders to seed the next cycle of health care innovation in Utah's BioHive. Currently located in Gateway's BioHive Hub in Salt Lake City, Altitude Lab is an incubator focused on early-stage life science and health care companies. The initiative is part of a larger city plan and collaborative vision from Recursion to foster socially responsible entrepreneurship, job creation, and economic productivity. The Recursion Foundation, under which Altitude Lab operates, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

Learn more at altitudelab.org or connect on X.

About the U.S. Small Business Administration

The U.S. Small Business Administration helps power the American dream of business ownership. As the only go-to resource and voice for small businesses backed by the strength of the federal government, the SBA empowers entrepreneurs and small business owners with the resources and support they need to start, grow, expand their businesses, or recover from a declared disaster. It delivers services through an extensive network of SBA field offices and partnerships with public and private organizations. To learn more, visit www.sba.gov. 

About Recursion

Recursion is a clinical stage TechBio company leading the space by decoding biology to industrialize drug discovery. Enabling its mission is the Recursion OS, a platform built across diverse technologies that continuously expands one of the world’s largest proprietary biological, chemical and patient-centric datasets. Recursion leverages sophisticated machine-learning algorithms to distill from its dataset a collection of trillions of searchable relationships across biology and chemistry unconstrained by human bias. By commanding massive experimental scale — up to millions of wet lab experiments weekly — and massive computational scale — owning and operating one of the most powerful supercomputers in the world, Recursion is uniting technology, biology, chemistry and patient-centric data to advance the future of medicine. 

Recursion is headquartered in Salt Lake City, where it is a founding member of BioHive, the Utah life sciences industry collective. Recursion also has offices in Toronto, Montreal and the San Francisco Bay Area. Learn more at www.Recursion.com, or connect on X (formerly Twitter) and LinkedIn.

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