Scala Scientific & BioPartner Leiden: A unique collaboration for 12.5 years

The Biopartner Leiden foundation was established about 20 years ago. The goal of Biopartner Leiden is to provide starting entrepreneurs in the 'life sciences' with the facilities they need to fully focus on their own core business: research and development of medicines and vaccines. The Biopartner Center Leiden is therefore a collective building in which office space and laboratory facilities can be rented. This offers, for example, start-ups, students or professors the opportunity to discover whether certain ideas are viable, without a large investment in a building or lab.

Loyal partners

Michel Keijzer, Commercial Director Scala Scientific: “There are several very nice elements to the collaboration with Biopartner Leiden. For example, Biopartner Leiden has been a customer from the very beginning, for about 12.5 years. I have known the contact person, Martien Hogewoning, for 20 years. An honest and loyal partner. It is great that we have been able to do business for so long.

In addition, the entire initiative and goal of Biopartner Leiden appeals to me. It supports starting entrepreneurs and thus makes a significant contribution to the development of medicines and vaccines.
What makes it special is that Biopartner Leiden is not just a customer of Scala Scientific who only buys something. Within the tenant base of Biopartner Leiden there are of course also other (potential) customers of Scala Scientific. Partly due to the good relationship with Biopartner Leiden, we work together with several of their tenants. This does indicate that there is a lot of trust.”

Martien Hogewoning, Facility Manager Biopartner Leiden: “I have been working at Biopartner Leiden for 16 years now, and I am currently responsible for everything related to operations. At Biopartner Leiden, we house around 85 companies, divided over 5 collective buildings. These vary in size from 1 to 100 employees. Around 35 of these companies do something with laboratories and related equipment. We offer the possibility to rent space on a small scale (in terms of space) and possibly for short periods. For many of these companies, this is a solution. Of all comparable initiatives in the Netherlands, Biopartner Leiden is by far the largest.

Biopartner Leiden also provides the basic facilities required for a laboratory. This includes -80 freezers and ice flake machines. These are present in every department. We purchased these -80 freezers and ice flake machines and maintain them at Scala Scientific.

As Michel already indicated, the collaboration is made unique by the fact that a number of our tenants (customers) are also customers of Scala Scientific. In that respect, even to a much greater extent than Biopartner Leiden.”

No reason to look further

Martien: “The strength of the collaboration is, as so often, in its simplicity. It is straightforward with good deliveries and high-quality maintenance. That is also one of the reasons why we have been working with Scala Scientific for so long. You can buy something, but with laboratory equipment you also need someone who can do something with it if something breaks. In other words, the party that sells must also be able to repair it. An occasional excursion to another supplier proved this once again, this ended in a fiasco. With Scala Scientific we have the party that offers us both high-quality laboratory equipment and high-quality maintenance. Of course, this also applies to our customers.

If I had to recommend Scala Scientific on a scale of 1-10, it would definitely be an 8.5. The only downside is the delivery times. However, this is currently a global challenge that affects everyone. With Scala Scientific, we are assured of good quality and good maintenance on the one hand, and on the other hand, we have always had a good relationship. Then there is no reason to look further.”

Michel: “We also greatly appreciate the collaboration with Biopartner Leiden and Martien. It is great to see that startups are given the opportunity to explore their ideas thanks to Biopartner Leiden. As Scala Scientific, we are happy to contribute to this. We are flexible and prepared to think along with (the customers of) Biopartner Leiden. Especially with start-up companies, knowledge and budget are often limiting factors. Then it is nice to work together with a party that already has experience with this. For example, Scala Scientific thinks along about whether a company needs an entire freezer and about the possible availability of an ex-demo model. These are just a few examples of the way in which we try to help.

Ultimately, it is very satisfying when some of these companies manage to make a big leap. This also offers the opportunity to grow together. After all, growth often requires more laboratory equipment, which we can help with. In this way, you contribute to each other's development. In that respect, this is a point of contact between Biopartner Leiden and Scala Scientific. We are both there for start-up companies in life sciences, now and in the future.