Emory University has launched a program in South Africa to help budding entrepreneurs start and sustain successful biotech companies.
The Atlanta university is partnering with The Innovation Hub, a South African science park, to launch the nine-month course in the province of Gauteng, which includes the major cities of Johannesburg and Pretoria.
The Gauteng Accelerator Program in Biosciences, or GAP, launched this week with a two-day biotech business seminar led by Emory faculty and attended by more than 70 South African scientists, government officials and business leaders.
Over the next five months, six to eight teams of entrepreneurs will develop business plans that will be entered into a competition. All teams will participate in a weeklong executive education course led by Emory faculty. The winners, to be selected in December, are to receive a cash prize, free incubation space at The Innovation Hub and continued mentorship for a year.
The program is part of a broader Emory effort to build South Africa’s bioscience industry. Professor Dennis Liotta, a co-inventor of widely used HIV drugs, and Emory General Counsel Steve Sencer created the South Africa Drug Discovery and Training Program for scientists in the country.
For more information, visit www.gapbiosciences.co.za.
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