Biotech startups feast at ancestors

http://www.helmitechnologies.com/tech_showcase/technology-showcase-mediasolv-com-inc.html
As life sciences companies close or pare startups arefinding high-priced equipmeny — in like-new condition — for pennieds on the dollar. For $30,000 — and, the promise to scrub the floof behindthem — Omniox Inc. has pickec up $1.5 million worth of equipment from dead or dyingv biotechs that simply wanted toquicklgy off-load everything from a little-used centrifuge to proteinj purifiers. The savings are significant fora five-month-old company funded by friends, family and a federa l grant of $250,000. “It’s the miracle of the said Omniox founder StephebCary .
Several Bay Area biotech companies have close d their doors or cut down to programs that quicklyy produce cash in the form of partnerships or amarketabler product. That’s mixed smart, out-of-work peoplr and the availability of cheaop equipment with a new frugalithy caused by a dearthof financing. “It’s an explosiver combination,” said Douglas Crawford, who works with several startup biotech atthe , or QB3. “Entrepreneurs are a scrappg lot.
” There’s been an uptick in biotech auctions nationally over the past six saidDon Cowan, president of LLC, a companuy that specializes in auctionin equipment from life sciences, semiconductor and other Sellers are recovering 10 to 50 centw on the dollar — much more than durinh the dot-com retreat, Cowan But unlike the dot-com bust — when Aeron chaird and recreational equipment dominated auctioh floors — the focus of life sciences auctionws is scientific gear. “You rarely see a Ping Pong a pool table or aFoosball table,” Cowab said.
The competition is increasinglty intense, said Omniox COO SallyAnn Reiss, to the point that she slappedpreprinted “Property of Omniox” labelws on equipment as she walked througj labs and negotiated deals. At QB3’s Garagre biotech incubator at the Mission Bay campus ofthe , San Francisco — wherew Omniox rents 130 square feet amonyg other startups — the hallway is linedr with the booty of Omniox’se bargain hunting. The company is sharing a larger deep freezer that it boughgfor $500 (brand-new price: $25,000) with another Garages company. “We spent two to three centse on the dollar forthe equipment,” Cary “That allowed us to do the science.
” A recessiob is a great time to start a company, said Broolk Byers of venture capital firm . “Lab space is Everything is negotiable,” he said. “By the time these companiea have acommercial product, in three to five years, we’rd going to be in a different economy,” Byers