CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--H3 Biomedicine Inc., a cancer drug discovery company, unveils today its first phase of growth with the dedication and official opening of new headquarters and 24,000 square feet of state-of-the-art laboratory space in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Over the next year, the company plans to increase its staff to 70 people and further expand into more laboratory space within its building as it continues to pursue its mission to fulfill the promise of personalized cancer medicine.
“H3 Biomedicine is well equipped with our new Cambridge facilities to address some of the most challenging cancers by delivering on our scientific vision of patient-based, genomics-driven drug discovery,” said Markus Warmuth, M.D., H3 Biomedicine President and CEO. “With the support of our scientific founders and Eisai, H3 will attract and retain the world’s leading scientific talent and make a real difference in the lives of patients living with some of the most difficult cancers to treat.”
H3 Biomedicine’s scientific vision was established by scientific founders Dr. Stuart Schreiber and Dr. Todd Golub of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT. The vision is based on their understanding that the genetics of patients’ cancers can reveal drug targets tailored to their cancers, and when you add the advances in next-generation synthetic chemistry it will enable the discovery of new classes of drugs against these targets. Eisai, a leading global pharmaceutical company, has pledged up to $200 million in research funding to H3 Biomedicine and will provide additional support for the H3 clinical development programs including access to many of Eisai’s drug development capabilities.
“Our commitment is based on our belief that H3 Biomedicine provides an innovative, intensely collaborative business model ideally suited to the intellectual, operational, and fiscal demands of genomics-driven, patient-based drug discovery,” said Haruo Naito, Eisai Co., Ltd. President and CEO and honorary guest at the H3 dedication. “The unique collaboration we have established represents a discovery model of the future and is well aligned with our global commitment to help satisfy unmet medical needs.”
“H3 Biomedicine’s discovery approach starts with the patient,” said Dr. Schreiber. “Leveraging its deep expertise in the genetics of cancer – including a vast cache of publicly available cancer genomics data – H3 works outward from patient populations to identify targets based on specific genetic and epigenetic features of their cancers. H3 has the special combination of vision and long-term commitment of funding to be a pioneer in a new era of cancer drug discovery.”
“Insights into the molecular basis of cancer are growing by leaps and bounds. But we should not feel satisfied until this knowledge impacts patients,” added Dr. Golub.
“Massachusetts provides the ideal environment for a growing drug discovery company as it is home to one of the world’s leading biotechnology clusters, world-class academic and scientific institutions, top teaching hospitals, and the best educated workforce in the United States,” said Susan Windham-Bannister, Ph.D., President & CEO of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center.
About Eisai Inc.
Eisai Inc. was established in 1995 and began marketing its first product in the United States in 1997. Since that time, Eisai Inc. has rapidly grown to become a fully integrated pharmaceutical business. Eisai’s areas of commercial focus include neurology, gastrointestinal disorders and oncology/critical care. The company serves as the U.S. pharmaceutical operation of Eisai Co., Ltd., a research-based human health care (hhc) company that discovers, develops and markets products throughout the world.
Eisai has a global product creation organization that includes U.S.-based R&D facilities in Massachusetts, New Jersey, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, as well as manufacturing facilities in Maryland and North Carolina. The company’s areas of R&D focus include neuroscience; oncology; vascular, inflammatory and immunological reaction; and antibody-based programs. For more information about Eisai, please visit www.eisai.com/us.
About Eisai Co., Ltd.
Eisai Co., Ltd. is a research-based human health care (hhc) company that discovers, develops and markets products throughout the world. Through a global network of research facilities, manufacturing sites and marketing subsidiaries, Eisai actively participates in all aspects of the worldwide healthcare system.
About H3 Biomedicine Inc.
H3 Biomedicine Inc. is a privately held, uniquely structured drug discovery enterprise that is integrating insights from cancer genomics with innovative capabilities in synthetic chemistry and tumor biology to generate novel small-molecule drugs to treat cancer.
With a $200-million research funding commitment from the global human health care company, Eisai, and access to its worldwide development capabilities, H3 Biomedicine is well positioned to address some of the most challenging cancers by delivering on its scientific vision of patient-based, genomics-driven drug discovery. Visit www.H3biomedicine.com for more information.
Editorial Note:
H3 and Eisai business and scientific leaders quoted within this press release are available for interviews throughout the day and media are invited to attend the event.
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