NanoString Expands; New Biotech Silverback Therapeutics Sets Up Shop

NanoString Expands; New Biotech Silverback Therapeutics Sets Up Shop July 13, 2016
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff

SEATTLE – NanoString Technologies continues to grow. The company is leasing another 19,000 square feet of space in a new addition to the campus it currently calls home, the Puget Sound Business Journal reported this morning.

With its new space, NanoString now occupies about 78,000 square feet of the Vue Research Center. The new space was needed as the company has been undergoing something of a hiring spree over the past year.

In addition to NanoString, another biotech company also leased space at the Vue, the Journal said. Silverback Therapeutics, which has been operating in stealth mode, has taken over an estimated 19,400 square feet of space. Earlier this year the startup netted $10 million in funding. The company was incorporated earlier this year, according to a Bloomberg overview, but has remained mum on how many employees it has and what kind of work it is doing.

The Vue is owned by BioMed Realty, which focuses on life science and biotech properties, works in core U.S. life science markets including San Francisco, San Diego, Maryland, New York/New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Seattle.

Over the years Seattle-based NanoString Technologies, a companion diagnostics company, has been making a solid name for itself through successful oncology collaborations with companies like Merck & Co. , Celgene , Astellas and Medivation . Throughout 2015, the company embarked on several collaborations, which raised its profile and its share prices. One of those collaborative efforts was with Merck in support of the development of the potential blockbuster cancer drug, Keytruda. Earlier this year NanoString penned a deal with Astellas and Medivation, worth up to $22 million that will see the company’s nCounter Dx Analysis System be used to run the diagnostic side of a Phase III trial for enzalutamide for triple negative breast cancer.

In a previous interview with Brad Gray, NanoString’s president and chief executive officer, he said the company’s nCounter technology continues to show progress as a leading platform for tumor profiling. Coupled with the introduction of the platforms combined genomic and proteomic capability, as well as new products focused on immuno-oncology. The nCounter Analysis System is designed to be a cost-effective way to profile the gene expression and miRNAs, or copy number variations, simultaneously. The platform is designed to facilitate basic research and translational medicine applications, including biomarker discovery and validation.

In May 2015, NanoString announced a partnership with Cancer Immunotherapy Trials Network to discover biomarkers that predict clinical outcomes for cancer immunotherapies, both as single agents and in combination. The collaboration will involve the systematic use of NanoString's nCounter Analysis System and PanCancer Immune Profiling technology in multiple prospective CITN clinical trials, the company said. NanoString's immuno-oncology targeted panels will be used to analyze blood and tissue biopsies at multiple time-points during immunotherapy clinical trials.

Shares of NanoString are up more than 2 percent this morning, currently trading for $12.38.

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