Exelixis, Inc. To Vacate Most Of Its South San Francisco Office Space

October 17, 2014

By Riley McDermid, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff

Flailing biotech Exelixis has had another major setback and will abandon almost 20,000 square feet of its office space in South San Francisco, news outlets reported late Thursday.

The struggling firm already laid off two-thirds of its workforce in September and will now sublease the space as it searches for cheaper, presumably smaller, quarters.

The 215,000-square-foot complex on Grand Avenue could fetch a sizeable rent in today's booming San Francisco rental market.

Exelixis Chief Executive Officer Michael Morrissey said in September that a failed late-stage drug trial for the company’s prostate cancer drug Cometriq would force the company to slim down to only 70 employees. During its heyday in 2009, the firm had over 750.