Roche and its Genentech subsidiary are planning to hitch up their cardiovascular, renal and metabolism R&D work and shift it over to a new center in Harvard’s Enterprise Research Campus.
The research campus in Allston in Boston is currently under development, with the first phase of construction expected to be completed next year, according to Roche’s March 7 release. The site is adjacent to Harvard’s Science and Engineering Complex and near Harvard Business School.
Roche will be the first company to take up residence on the campus, moving into a suite that will initially span 30,000 square feet as part of this first phase of development.
The Roche Genentech Innovation Center Boston, as it will be known, will be overseen by Manu Chakravarthy, Roche’s global head of CVRM product development, and, over time, could employ up to 500 staff.
Specifically, the site will establish a “significant end-to-end R&D presence in CVRM,” Roche said, as well as “support some of Roche’s and Genentech’s efforts in AI and data science to accelerate drug discovery and development.”
Related
Roche ramps up R&D with $1.4B Swiss facility
“Our new innovation center builds upon our long-standing collaboration with Harvard and enables us to leverage the exceptional talent in the Boston area,” Roche CEO Thomas Schinecker said in the release.
CRVM is outside Roche and Genentech's historical core focus, which has predominately been in oncology with major drugs like Avastin and Herceptin and, more recently, in rare disease and the approval of its spinal muscular atrophy treatment Evrysdi.
Roche has, however, been ramping up deals and pacts in the CRVM space as it looks to get into markets that could yield megablockbusters. This includes a recent partnership with Alnylam and its RNAi therapeutic zilebesiran, set up to treat hypertension in patients with high cardiovascular risk. It also snapped up Carmot Therapeutics for $2.7 billion just over a year ago to get its hands on the biotech's programs in obesity and diabetes, two hot-ticket metabolic research areas.
“By investing in a new cardiovascular, renal, and metabolism center of excellence, along with data science and AI capabilities at this strategic location, we aim to accelerate Roche’s and Genentech’s research efforts and leverage the Boston innovation ecosystem,” Schinecker added. “Roche has a significant presence in the U.S. and this new center is one of a number of research and manufacturing investments that Roche is making in the U.S. through Genentech and diagnostics.”
Roche told Fierce Biotech it won't disclose the financial details of the Allston site.
Last year, the Swiss pharma opened new high-rises in its hometown of Basel. The company said at the time it was investing around 1.2 billion Swiss francs ($1.4 billion) for the Pharma Research and Early Development (pRED) Center of about 1,000 state-of-the-art laboratory and office workplaces in the Swiss capital.