Home > About BNE > Press Room > 2011 Archive > February > Giving life sciences firms a hand

Giving life sciences firms a hand

Business First - by Tracey Drury
Thursday, February 10, 2011

Vic Nole is hard at work to earn the title of busiest guy on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus.

Nole, a longtime consultant in the life sciences sector, signed a deal with BNMC officials for 13,000 square feet in the ground floor of the Innovation Center at 640 Ellicott St. downtown. The space, vacated this fall when Chakra Communication moved its operations out to Lancaster, will give Nole’s business a very visible presence at the Innovation Center.

A few months ago, Nole teamed up with five other consultants to create the Life Science Link, offering a menu of services to start-ups, researchers and growing life science firms. Once the space is ready - likely in May - the group will use the new space at the Innovation Center for a laboratory supply and contract commercial operations business.

The idea is to provide sales, fulfillment services and light assembly, primarily for scientists trying to run a commercial operation out of their labs. He’s also hoping to interest materials management personnel at the hospitals and larger employers on the campus who could better use space in their facilities for clinics or lab space versus storage.

“One of the ideas is to establish a central supply center for the campus,” he says.

Nole says the idea came after conversations with Patrick Whalen, COO at BNMC, who previously ran his own distribution and fulfillment business.

“Pat and I had been talking about this concept for a while, converting some of the warehouse space on the first floor and making it available to small and virtual biotech companies - and bigger ones who need those other services,” he says.

On Tuesday, Nole sent an email to the 300 people in his life science e-mail database outlining the concept. He’s already received five or six “e-mails of intent” from interested parties.

If the concept works as expected, Nole says he will likely also offer light manufacturing and assembly work, and possibly some analytical testing.