Alpha Genesis Launches AGI Ventures With $50M Commitment to Co-Invest in Biotech Programs Through Its Preclinical CRO Platform

• Alpha Genesis, Inc., the Yemassee, South Carolina-based full-service preclinical CRO operating the largest nonhuman primate research colony in the U.S. with more than 13,000 NHPs across three AAALAC-accredited facilities, has launched AGI Ventures with an initial $50 million commitment — creating a hybrid investment and venture-development platform that combines capital with preclinical CRO research services for early-stage biotechnology companies.

• AGI Ventures will target biotech companies whose next financing, partnering, or clinical development milestone depends on generating preclinical data, offering flexible investment structures including reduced or deferred study fees, research credits, direct equity investments, warrants, and milestone-based payment arrangements in exchange for the CRO research infrastructure required to reach those milestones.

Alpha Genesis, Inc., America’s leading provider of nonhuman primate research services and a full-service preclinical CRO, has launched AGI Ventures with an initial $50 million commitment, announced September 9, 2026, from Yemassee, South Carolina. The new platform creates a hybrid investment and CRO development model in which Alpha Genesis combines capital with its preclinical research infrastructure — offering early-stage biotechnology companies an alternative to raising cash solely to fund outsourced studies, with part of their preclinical capital requirement addressed through customized research and investment arrangements tied directly to the studies needed to advance their assets.

The model is structured around the recognition that the preclinical stage is among the most capital-intensive periods in drug development relative to the data maturity of programs at that stage. Many early-stage biotechnology companies require substantial preclinical spending before they have generated the data necessary to attract their next institutional financing round, pharmaceutical partner, or licensing opportunity. AGI Ventures directly addresses this tension by enabling Alpha Genesis to invest alongside selected companies through structures including reduced or deferred study fees, research credits, direct equity investments, warrants, and milestone-based payment arrangements — with investment structures negotiated individually based on each company and development program rather than offered as a standardized template.

For accepted programs, Alpha Genesis scientists will develop a preclinical plan covering model selection, study design, endpoints, and the data package required to reach the company’s next identified milestone. The CRO will then execute the agreed research program, while AGI Ventures maintains involvement through subsequent studies, financing discussions, and IND-enabling development — providing continuity as programs progress from rodent proof-of-concept studies into nonhuman primate work where appropriate. Alpha Genesis’ research capabilities accessible through the platform span early proof-of-concept, pharmacology, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, biomarker development, toxicology, bioanalysis, and IND-enabling studies — all operated under AAALAC-accredited, USDA-licensed, and OLAW-assured conditions.

AGI Ventures will evaluate potential programs against six criteria: scientific quality, technological differentiation, development and commercial potential, management team quality, intellectual property, and the importance of the proposed preclinical work to the company’s next milestone. Companies wishing to engage the platform will initially submit non-confidential information covering their technology, development program, and near-term objectives for scientific evaluation by the Alpha Genesis team. The $50 million initial commitment effectively adds a venture investment layer to Alpha Genesis’ existing CRO infrastructure — creating a longer-term relationship model in which the company participates in the potential value created when successful preclinical results lead to additional financing, licensing agreements, or clinical development, rather than being compensated solely as a fee-for-service CRO provider.

“The companies we want to work with do not necessarily need another CRO. They need a partner who can understand the science, identify the experiment that will meaningfully advance the program, and then execute it.”

Xavier Westergaard, PhD, President, Alpha Genesis, Inc.