Cambridge's bluebird bio Will Move to Huge Kendall Square Space Next Year
September 30, 2015
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – bluebird bio is increasing its presence in the crowded Kendall Street area of Cambridge by moving into a new 253,000 square-foot facility, the Boston Business Journal reported this morning.
Bluebird, which specializes in treatments for blood disorders, signed a 10-year lease for space that is still under construction. The new construction, when it is complete, will include 907,000 square feet of research and office space, the Journal said. Bluebird expects to occupy the new space sometime next year.
Bluebird’s expansion is coming on the heels of positive news for the company this year. In June, bluebird struck a deal with Kite Pharma, Inc. to develop T-cell therapies to treat cancer linked to Human papilloma virus (HPV). T-cell receptors are showing promise in boosting the body’s own immune system to combat cancer. During the spring, bluebird released a report showing its sickle cell anemia drug, LentiGlobin, has kept two patients transfusion free for 14 and 11 months, respectively. In June, LentiGlobin was also shown to be effective on a French teen, who was able to avoid getting a transfusion for three months. The French teen is the first person to be treated with the drug for sickle cell, though Bluebird has been actively testing it on other patients of all ages for a more rare blood disorder, beta thalassemia. The success in treating the French teen somewhat allayed concerns raised by a panel of scientists convened by the National Institutes of Health Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee that recommended the company delay trials of beta thalassemia for one to two years in order to gather more safety information.
LentiGlobin was granted Breakthrough Therapy Status by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in February. The designation is given to drugs expected to treat life-threatening illnesses in order to expedite the development and review of the drug.
Hydroxyurea, one of the drugs used to treat sickle cell anemia, is included on the World Health Organization’s list of essential medicines.
The Kendall Square area of Cambridge is the central hub of the greater Boston pharmaceutical industry. Cambridge’s Kendall Square area, which makes up approximately one square mile, is packed with biotech representatives. In May, Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Company announced it will build a new drug delivery and device innovation center, the Lilly Cambridge Innovation Center, in Kendall Square.
In April, Amgen , headquartered in Thousand Oaks, Calif., announced it was going to expand its presence in its Cambridge facilities, as well as in South San Francisco, part of a 100-person staff expansion.
One of the reasons for the greater Boston area becoming such a major hub in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries is the plethora of research universities in the area. Boston also has one of the highest educated workforces in the nation. Not only are smaller companies calling the Boston area home, but many larger and established pharmaceutical companies, such as Pfizer Inc. , GlaxoSmithKline , Takeda Pharmaceuticals , Sanofi , Biogen, Inc. and Novartis AG have presences in the city. The close proximity of so many pharmaceutical and university laboratories provides researchers and scientists easy access to clinical studies and building partnerships between companies.
“It is much easier to have collaborative relationships when you can visit each other’s labs and have face to face meetings easily,” Ann Taylor, Novartis Global Head of the Program Office, told BioSpace last summer. “By having close proximity, it is easier to negotiate feasibility with the academic institutions for clinical trial access. Many of us came to Novartis (NVS) from the local institutions so contacts and relationships have been maintained both through science and recreational activities.”
With smaller companies being surrounded by the pharma giants, it also makes acquisitions easier for the big companies. Last summer, The Boston Globe highlighted a number of smaller companies acquired by larger entities, including Merck & Co. ’s $4 billion acquisition of Idenix, which was working on a hepatitis C drug.
According to the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, which makes its home in Cambridge, Mass., the heart of the state’s biotech industry, the biotech and pharmaceutical presence in the state grew by 41 percent between 2004 and 2013. Across the state, the industry employed 57,642 in 2013, the most recent year with complete data.
Recent growth in the Boston area includes IBM Corporation ’s new health unit, which will employ 2,000, as well as GSK’s new innovation center in Boston.