May 19, 2015
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
WALTHAM, Mass.-- FORUM Pharmaceuticals relocated its corporate headquarters to a new 112,500 square-foot state-of-the-art facility in Waltham in order to consolidate all operations, including administrative, clinical development and research, under one roof.
The new location will allow FORUM, formerly known as EnVivo Pharmaceuticals, to plan for future growth as it brings products to market, including lead product candidate encenicline, which is undergoing two large Phase III clinical trials for schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease. Additionally, the company’s genetically-targeted therapy, FRM-0334, is in a Phase II trial for a genetic variant of frontotemporal dementia.
Before moving into the new location, FORUM conducted business and operations from two locations in Watertown, Mass. and Brighton, Mass., as well as a small European office in The Netherlands.
“We are excited to be located under one roof in Waltham, as it facilitates daily interaction of our development and commercial teams with research scientists to drive continued innovation in FORUM’s focused product pipeline that targets serious brain diseases such as schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia,” Deborah Dunsire, president and chief executive officer of FORUM Pharmaceuticals, said in a statement.
Over the past two years FORUM, which is privately held, has nearly doubled its employment to about 175 staff members, the Boston Business Journal reported reported. The new Waltham site, which was once used by the payroll company ADP, is about 25 percent larger than the Watertown and Brighton facilities. According to FORUM’s website, the company is currently hiring for a few positions, including a clinical trial associate, research associate and research scientist positions, as well as several administrative positions, such as director of marketing. The company will continue to hire new staff at a “measured rate” in order to meet its needs, a company spokesperson told BioSpace.
Dunsire told the Journal that it was important for all of FORUM’s staff to be under one roof as they push ahead on bringing drug candidates through trial and to market.
“One of the things I really believe in is that the R&D team and commercial teams should interact to spark new ideas. Separating people by even a mile a mile and a half was too much,” she told the Journal.
Dunsire told the Journal FORUM will not bolster its sales force until the company is closer to the commercial launch of encenicline, which is being studied for its use to treat both schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease.
The company expects results of the Phase III schizophrenia for encenicline trial next year, and if results are positive, the company could apply for drug approval by the fall of 2016, the Business Journal noted. The results of the Alzheimer’s trial using encenicline are expected after the schizophrenia trial, the Journal noted. Encenicline is designed to help boost the cognitive abilities in the brain.
FORUM’s investigational therapy FRM-0334 in patients with the ultra-orphan rare disease frontotemporal dementia with granulin mutation, moved into a Phase II trial in February. A Phase I study of the drug was completed in Europe earlier in the year, where it was well tolerated by patients, the company said.
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