This Albuquerque Launchpad Lets Biotech Companies Take On a Life of Their Own The BioScience Center encourages companies to stay for three years at below-market rates or in exchange for a percentage of equity.

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At The BioScience Center, an incubator for biotech and life-science startups in Albuquerque, N.M., entrepreneurs are encouraged to stay for at least three years. "Biotech has a little bit longer runway," says Lisa Adkins, COO and director of the center, which launched in 2013. "It takes them longer to get going and certainly to get funded and to get to proof of concept and whatever sort of testing they need to do." Not to mention, she adds, to get through the protracted FDA-approval process.

For founders on this path, the 20,000-square-foot center provides offices and wet chemistry and microbiology labs at below-market rates ($23 per square foot for office space; $25 for labs); alternatively, founders can exchange a small percentage of their equity or future revenue for use of the space. Either way, the package includes an assortment of industry mentors, workshops and mock pitch sessions.