BIOSTART and YourEncore Form Partnership to Accelerate Innovation for Life Sciences Start-ups

CINCINNATI, OH--(Marketwire - March 24, 2009) - BIOSTART and YourEncore today announced the formation of the Innovation Partners Program, an innovation acceleration program that provides BIOSTART's life sciences start-up clients, sponsors and affiliates with unlimited access to YourEncore's broad community of retired and veteran scientists and engineers. The program is part of BIOSTART's ongoing efforts to move from a facilities-based incubator to a services-based organization. Recently, BIOSTART launched DialedIn.org, an online resource for life science entrepreneurs and start-ups.

Founded by the Procter & Gamble Company, Boeing, and Eli Lilly and Company in 2003, YourEncore will help BIOSTART's clients accelerate innovation by connecting them with industry and technology experts who can provide the skills often missing from young start-ups. Typically, companies pay YourEncore an annual fee to access its network of experts. As a result of the partnership, YourEncore is waiving the access fee for BIOSTART's clients, sponsors and affiliates. Other life sciences, biotech and technology start-up companies and incubators can also join BIOSTART to gain access to the Innovation Partners Program.

Participants in the program can use the network as often as they want and only pay when they engage a YourEncore network member in a short-term project. Costs of a project vary based on a number of factors, including experience level, qualifications, type of services delivered and length of engagement.

"This is the first program of its kind for both BIOSTART and YourEncore, and it provides a great opportunity for young companies to access skills and resources that otherwise may have been out of reach," said Camille Rechel, Director of the Innovation Partners Program. "Through our consultative program, we will work with BIOSTART's clients to identify and match their needs with experts that can provide skills and support on a short-term project basis. The program is uniquely positioned to help participants retain critical knowledge and make remarkable connections and solve challenging problems using expertise from a variety of companies and industries."

For more than 10 years, BIOSTART has empowered young life science companies with business and scientific know-how and cutting-edge lab facilities. BIOSTART serves as a catalyst and a community allowing life science start-ups to transform ideas and technology into products that are then advanced to market by sustainable businesses. With the Innovation Partner Program, BIOSTART is focused on expanding its services offerings and geographic reach to help even more life sciences start-up companies.

"This program allows our clients, sponsors and affiliates to leverage external resources to accelerate their research and development efforts, while allowing BIOSTART to affect more entrepreneurs and start-ups," said Carol Frankenstein, president of BIOSTART. "Many of our young companies don't have the funding or full-time need for an experienced scientist or engineer. The Innovation Partners Program saves them money and fills the needs with been-there-done-that experts on a short-term basis. Simply by joining BIOSTART, organizations can save a significant amount of money to access YourEncore's extensive community of under-utilized retired and veteran scientists."

For more information on BIOSTART's Innovation Partners Program, contact Camille Rechel at 513-475-4089 or email crechel@biostart.org.

About BIOSTART

Based in Cincinnati, Ohio, BIOSTART is a life sciences start-up center serving as a catalyst and community for life sciences entrepreneurs. For more than a decade, BIOSTART has applied this dual focus approach to build life sciences companies that create jobs, develop products that improve health and quality of life, and generate wealth for its clients, the greater Cincinnati region, and for the State of Ohio. BIOSTART engages clients and partners in a supportive entrepreneurial culture that has global reach and relationships.

BIOSTART catalyzes life sciences commercialization by finding medical product innovators, nurturing ventures that develop competitive products, and connecting companies to the resources needed to create wealth and jobs. For more information, visit www.BIOSTART.org.

About YourEncore

YourEncore (http://www.yourencore.com) helps companies accelerate innovation by leveraging the expertise of retired and veteran scientists and engineers. YourEncore provides these services to industry-leading companies using a secure and confidential business environment. Procter & Gamble, Eli Lilly and Company, The Boeing Company, General Mills, National Starch and other Fortune 500 companies engage with YourEncore to leverage external innovation as a means to accelerate growth. YourEncore experts specialize in the life sciences, consumer sciences, food sciences, specialty materials, and aerospace and defense industries. YourEncore received the 2007 Growth Award from Indiana University's Kelley School of Business. YourEncore is headquartered in Indianapolis.

Contact Information: Media Contact: Kevin Wilson 513-898-1008