CRISPR Takes Space in Former Vertex Site Converted by Mass Innovation Labs for Startup Companies
May 22, 2015
By Alex Keown and Riley McDermid, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
BOSTON -- CRISPR Therapeutics, a 10-employee gene editing biotech firm, is the first tenant in Mass Innovation Labs biotech incubator located in a facility that once housed offices and laboratory space for Vertex Pharmaceuticals , the Boston Business Journal reported this morning.
The company is currently hiring for three positions: a research project leader, a research associate and a research scientist.
Mass Innovation Labs took over the Kendall Street space in February, which shares building space with Momenta Pharmaceuticals, Inc. , in an effort to provide incubator space for startup biotech companies. The 124,000 square-foot facility, which includes office space and laboratory space, has been designed to accommodate the needs of biotech firms with between five and 30 employees, the Business Journal reported. On its website Mass Innovation Labs says their space offers a “collaborative ecosystem that allows a company to run as a lean organization and focus on the science with expert drug development partners down the hall.”
Mass Innovation Labs got its start after Amrit Chaudhuri, MIL’s chief executive officer, and some of his colleagues were discussing the lack of space for startup biotech companies. In addition to the physical space Mass Innovation Labs provides, Chaudhuri told the Journal the service also extends to “the permitting process for a lab space, providing security janitorial services and other necessities.” Those basic provisions can shave four to seven months off the typical amount of time a biotech startup needs to get off the ground, he said. Additionally, Mass Innovation Labs includes an on-site animal facility for pre-clinical testing run by Charles River Labs.
Mass Innovation Labs charges a flat fee for startups, but a per scientist average is between $80,000 and $150,000 per year.
The Labs’ first tenant CRISPR raised $89 million in Series A and Series B financing in April. The company, which is focused on translating CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology into transformative medicines to address the root causes of disease. In April CRISPR Therapeutics announced it was looking for space in the Cambridge area to house its research and development efforts.
“Our new Cambridge, Massachusetts, location provides us with close access to our academic founders and their extensive networks, as well as a large pool of scientific talent to drive our discovery and development programs,” Bill Lundberg, the company’s chief scientific officer, said in a statement.
Mass Innovation Labs is not the only group to convert former Vertex space for biotech startup use. BioMed Realty Trust rebranded almost 350,000 square feet of former Vertex space over three buildings in Boston as the Sidney Research Campus. Vertex vacated the space in 2013 when it moved a few miles into Boston.
The new Sidney Research Campus facility already has its first tenant lined up. RaNA Therapeutics, a 25-employee preclinical biotech headed by Ron Renaud, the former CEO of Idenix Pharmaceuticals, Inc. , will move in in September, the Journal reported. More tenants are expected to be announced later this year. In 2013 RaNa RaNa inked a deal with Denmark-based Santaris Pharma A/S to use Santaris’ Locked Nucleic Acid (LNA) technology to develop RNA-targeted medicines.
The two sites aimed at providing necessary space for startup biotech companies fit Boston’ growth into the biotech hub for the east coast. More companies, such as IBM’s new Watson Health Unit, or Beryllium, locate their headquarters and satellite offices to the area.
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 Idec, Inc. and Novartis AG have presences in the city.
Boston remains one of the world’s best places to find top-notch life science talent. “Massachusetts has the highest educated workforce in the United States. It ranks 1st in the nation in percentage of residents with a bachelor’s degree or higher,” said The Massachusetts Biotechnology Council in a statement. “Its elementary and secondary students perform best in the nation on national assessments.”
The council is an association of more than 650 biotechnology companies, universities, academic institutions and others dedicated to advancing cutting edge research. According to the council, there were 57,642 biopharma employees in Massachusetts in 2013 and the companies employing those workers are responsible for over $7.2 million of in-state payroll. There are more than 550 biotech and pharma companies located in Massachusetts, 284 of which are drug development companies.
“The Massachusetts biopharma industry grew by 41 percent between 2004 and 2013. Massachusetts is home to a biotechnology cluster that is second to none,” it said, adding that money used to fund the industry continues to pour in.
“Massachusetts received $2.3 billion in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding for basic research in Fiscal Year 2013.
Massachusetts researchers receive over 11 percent of all NIH research funds. On a per capita basis, Massachusetts receives over twice as much NIH funding (FY 2012) as the next closest state, Texas”.
Complementing its outstanding biopharmaceutical companies are 122 colleges and universities, over 40 of which offer advanced degrees in the life sciences, the top five National Institutes of Health-funded hospitals in the nation.
Will Mylan Buy Teva, As Predator Becomes Prey?
The complicated three-way takeover waltz being conducted between Pittsburgh, Penn.-based Mylan Inc., Israeli company Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. and Perrigo Company took another weird turn last week, after Mylan said that while it still views Teva’s unsolicited $40.1 billion bid as too low, it might want to acquire Teva itself eventually. Mylan Chairman Robert J. Coury made it clear that if Mylan is able to cement its deal with Perrigo, it might go shopping again—and this time to buy Teva, not be bought. With dealmaking heating up in 2015, we wanted to know your thoughts: Will perennial predator Teva wind up being prey?