NewHavenBIZ

4 n e w h a v e n B I Z | J u l y 2 0 2 1 | n e w h a v e n b i z . c o m A r o u n d t h e R e g i o n Bioscience incubator to open on Yale medical campus Plans are underway for a new 7,630-square-foot bioscience incubator in New Haven. e John B. Pierce Laboratory, a nonprof- it, independent research institute affiliated with Yale University, said it will open the incubator inside its building at 290 Con- gress St. in October. State bioscience industry organization BioCT will create and run the incubator, dubbed New Haven Innovation Labs. Located on the Yale School of Medicine campus, the incubator will comprise 6,250 square feet of lab and office space and 1,380 square feet of common area. ere will be a mix of private and shared wet labs and offices. With Gov. Ned Lamont's signature, CT legalizes cannabis Possession of cannabis for non-medical purposes was legal as of July 1, with retail sales set to begin next year. e legislation legalizes marijuana pos- session of up to one-and-a-half ounces for adults 21 and over. e law went into effect July 1, with legal sales anticipated by May 2022. Adults will be allowed to securely cul- tivate cannabis at home starting July 1, 2023. Connecticut is the 19th state in the U.S., and the fourth state in New England to fully legalize the drug. e bill envisions marijuana as a major industry in Connecticut, which already has four commercial growers of cannabis for medical use. Commercial production licenses for the recreational market could cost as much as $3 million, while the fee for a micro-cultivator would be $1,000. New Haven-based SPAC to acquire Boston digital health startup Pear A New Haven-based SPAC tied to the Pritzker Vlock Family Office recently announced its acquisition target: the rising Boston-based digital health startup Pear erapeutics. imble Point Ac- quisition Co., a special purpose acquisition company, raised $240 million in an initial public offering last February. At the time, it said it would use the proceeds to acquire a "high-growth soware and technology-en- abled company." imble Point is helmed by Elon S. Boms, a New Havener who is managing director of Pritzker Vlock Family Office, an investment firm. e SPAC deal will pump roughly $400 million into the startup upon closing, including $276 million held in imble Point's trust account and another $125 million from private investors via a PIPE (private investment in public equity) round. Pear describes itself as a leader in pre- scription digital therapeutics. Pear has three Food and Drug Administration-authorized products, including reSETm, a 90-day prescription-only soware to provide cog- nitive behavioral therapy for patients being treated for substance use disorder. It also has soware to treat opioid use disorder and chronic insomnia. Norwalk company raises $12.5M, plans global expansion Triax Technologies Inc., a Norwalk-based company that provides tech aimed at improving safety in construction and other industries, recently raised $12.5 million in a Series A funding round. McRock Capital of Toronto led the round, and Triax also got support from Connecticut Innovations of New Haven and existing shareholders. Triax plans to use the money to expand its team. e funds will also be used to scale the company's operations globally. Triax has products aimed at helping employers manage complex worksites. e company's Spot-r Clip, for example, attaches to a worker's waist belt and mon- itors their location as they move around a job site. e company's customers are frequently in the construction, energy, oil and gas, manufacturing, mining and heavy industrial sectors. PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED A construction worker wears Triax Technologies' Spot-r Clip, a wearable sensor device that detects worker falls and other potential hazards on a job site. Guilford's Quantum-Si to open new San Diego facility Guilford's Quantum-Si has announced plans for a major expansion in San Diego. e protein-sequencing startup founded by Guilford scientist-entrepreneur Jonathan Rothberg said it will open a 25,586-square- foot "product development and operations facility" in the California biotech hotspot. e site will help the newly public com- pany expand R&D and scale production ahead of an expected 2022 commercial launch. e medtech firm said it chose San Diego "due to its vast network of talent" and that the site will "play a vital role in expanding the company's recruitment efforts within our product development team as the com- pany prepares for commercial readiness." e company signed a six-year lease for the fourth-floor of a building in the Genesis Science Center, a Class A life sciences cam- pus in San Diego's Sorrento Mesa biotech cluster. e company will begin operations at the new location during the third quar- ter. Quantum-Si is using semiconductor chips to develop a next-generation protein sequencing technology. Manufacturer ITT Inc. moving HQ from NY to Stamford ITT Inc., a manufacturing and technol- ogy company, will relocate its corporate headquarters from New York to Connecti- cut, Gov. Ned Lamont announced. According to state officials, ITT will move into a 24,000-square-foot office at 100 Washington Blvd., in Stamford, bring- ing with it 57 full-time jobs. e firm is currently based in White Plains. To support the move, the state De- partment of Economic and Community Development plans to provide ITT with a grant in arrears of up to nearly $2 million, contingent upon the company creating and retaining up to 57 new full-time positions in Connecticut. ITT produces specially engineered com- ponents for use in the aerospace, transpor- tation, energy and automotive industries. It employs about 9,700 people worldwide, with locations in more than 35 countries. PHOTO | COURTESY ITT INC. Connecticut's 1Q GDP rises 6% A key measure of Connecticut's economy grew during the first three months of 2021, but lagged behind most of the Northeast, according to federal data. According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Connecticut's gross domestic product (GDP) — defined as the market value of all goods and services produced within the state's borders — grew 6% from the fourth quarter of 2020. e national average for the quarter was 6.4%. In New England, only Maine (5.2%) performed worse than Connecticut, and in the 11 Northeast states, Connecticut was ahead of only New Jersey (5.6%) and Delaware (5.6%), and tied for seventh with Pennsylvania. Connecticut's GDP growth ranked 34th nationally. Durable goods manufacturing saw the single highest increase in the quarter in Connecticut. Philip Morris International will relocate HQ, 200 jobs from NYC to CT Tobacco giant Philip Morris International is moving its corporate headquarters to Connecticut's Fairfield County from New York. e move will bring 200 jobs to Fairfield County, where PMI will relocate, CEO Jacek Olczak said at a June event announcing the move. PMI is scheduled to make the move next summer. Olczak acknowledged PMI's reputation as the most famous cigarette maker, but said he hopes people keep an open mind to the company's pivot to smokeless products. e CEO also said he sees opportunity in working with Connecticut. Tweed agreement approved; Airline commits $1.2M for upgrades e Tweed-New Haven Airport Authority approved an agreement in June with Avelo Airlines, which will spend $1.2 million for upgrades to the airport. Sean Scanlon, authority director, said the three-party agreement is between the au- thority, Avelo Airlines and longtime Tweed airport operator Avports LLC. e $1.2 million approved in June will be used for various upgrades, including to the airport's existing terminal, administrative building and parking areas. Avelo plans to begin operating out of Tweed (HVN) in the third quarter of this year. Scanlon said the addition of Avelo will mean more non-stop destinations, which will be announced in the coming weeks. e approval follows the airport's an- nouncement in May of a planned $100 mil- lion expansion project, which will include a new terminal and expanded runway. By the end of 2021, Avelo expects to sta- tion three Boeing 737-700 aircra at Tweed. B R I E F S Drug company adding CT jobs in anticipation of FDA OK A California biopharma company said it will add 100 jobs at its Danbury R&D and manufacturing facility as it scales up production of a new drug that is nearing Food and Drug Administration approval. e FDA has agreed to a speedy review of Tyvaso DPI, a drug MannKind Corp. is developing with Maryland biotech United erapeutics, the two companies announced. e companies said the FDA's acceptance of the new drug application for a priority review puts Tyvaso DPI on track for FDA approval in October. e drug, which uses MannKind's Technosphere technology, is a dry powder inhaled version of the drug treprostinil. PHOTO | PIXABAY.COM Elon S. Boms PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED Former Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi (left), Gov. Ned Lamont and Philip Morris International CEO Jacek Olczak PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED The Tweed-New Haven Airport Authority wants to increase the airport's runway by more than 1,000 feet.

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