Check out AxoSim CEO Lowry Curley PhD, and Obatala Sciences CEO Trivia Frazier’s, PhD, MBA, op-ed highlighting their experiences growing companies in Southeast Louisiana and how important funding is for the BioDistrict for future growth and success.
Nola.com Letters: BioDistrict will create opportunities for region’s generations to come
We are home-grown bioscience entrepreneurs from New Orleans. As the City Council considers whether to invest in the BioDistrict New Orleans, we urge all New Orleanians to embrace the future jobs and opportunities the BioDistrict can bring.
We were both students in New Orleans who wanted to advance our careers here, but opportunities were limited.
We dug our heels in and founded our companies; Obatala Sciences, a biotechnology toolkit company that offers research-enabling products and brain power to scientists to advance therapies in the fields of obesity, diabetes and regenerative medicine, and AxoSim, a biotechnology company founded to facilitate breakthroughs in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases and address unsustainably high clinical failure rates that cost pharmaceutical companies billions of dollars and patients years of waiting for new medications.
We both faced major challenges in getting our companies off the ground. From a lack of capital to extremely limited bioscience facilities, the barriers seemed insurmountable. And at times, they still do.