As part of consolidation program, Shire is looking to sell a manufacturing facility in Milford, MA that it gained through its 2015 acquisition of Baxalta.
As part of consolidation program, Shire is looking to sell a manufacturing facility in Milford, Mass. that it gained through its 2015 acquisition of Baxalta.
In June, Shire first announced its intentions to consolidate more than 3,000 staffers spread out at over half-a-dozen locations across Massachusetts to two campuses in Cambridge and Lexington. The company planned to carry out the consolidation over the next four years. In an interview with the Boston Business Journal last week, Matt Walker, the head of Shire’s technical operations, said the company plans to divest five of its 17 global manufacturing sites, which includes the Milford facility. Although Shire is looking to sell off the Milford site, the company does not seem to have plans to terminate the 100 employees based there. Walker told the Journal that Shire has a plan for those employees to transfer into other roles with the company.
“We feel confident that we’ll be able to divest that site, and that there will continue to be employment for those colleagues,” Walker told the Journal.
Shire employs about 3,000 people in Massachusetts. The Dublin-based company plans to move its U.S. headquarters from the Lexington location to Cambridge. It will turn the Cambridge site into a center of excellence, focused on research and Shire’s U.S. business operations. The Lexington site will be focused on manufacturing. By 2019, the bulk of its U.S.-based researchers will be located in Shire’s Cambridge facility.
As part of Shire’s consolidation plans, the company has inked a contract to take over 230,000 square-feet of space formerly occupied by ARIAD Pharmaceuticals. The space was the former headquarters of the cancer-focused Ariad, which was acquired earlier this year for $5.2 billion by Japan-based Takeda Pharmaceuticals. In July 2016, Ariad moved into a new Cambridge-area facility, but held onto some real estate, which it has subleased to other companies, including IBM Watson Health. Shire’s Cambridge operations will primarily be spread across the former Ariad space as well as a facility previously occupied by Sanofi Genzyme. Shire announced it was taking over the former Genzyme space last year. The company said it intends to make that building a rare disease innovation hub.
Last week, Shire reported 7 percent growth in the third quarter. In a statement, Shire Chief Executive Officer Flemming Ornskov said the company was able to achieve that growth despite a shortage a cinryze, the company’s C1 esterase inhibitor. That shortage has been addressed and Ornskov said the drug began to ship again in early October.
