The CEO of Achillion Pharmaceuticals, one of New Haven’s oldest biotech firms, cited access to talent and two major airports as reasons for moving the company’s C-suite and half its employees to suburban Philadelphia.
As previously reported, the rare-disease drugmaker signed a lease last November for roughly 12,000 square feet of office space in Blue Bell, Pa., near Philadelphia, where recently appointed CEO Joseph Truitt lives.
At the time, officials confirmed the company was opening a second office but declined to characterize the move as a headquarters relocation and wouldn’t provide a headcount for employees in the Philly and New Haven offices.
In a news release formally announcing the new office last week, Achillion said it would house the biotech’s executive offices and clinical operations in Philly but keep “a significant research presence” in New Haven.
Spokesman Jon Pappas said Monday that 30 of the company’s 60 employees would be housed in the Pennsylvania office.
“We believe this additional space and proximity to talented and innovative individuals in the Philadelphia area will bolster our growing commercial capabilities as we develop treatments for patients with complement-mediated diseases,” Truitt, who has been with the company since 2009 and took the helm last May, said in a statement.
He told the Philadelphia Business Journal that proximity to pharmaceutical companies Merck, Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline and Johnson & Johnson would help Achillion recruit executives with experience in drug commercialization.
He also said transportation — particularly airport access — factored into the decision, which Pappas confirmed Monday.
“Blue Bell has good access to airports — Philly and Newark — that provide us with multiple options for international and domestic travel,” Truitt told the Philadelphia publication. “We wholly own our assets and are developing them on a global basis so we need to have convenient access to flights to Asia and Europe.”
Truitt has strong ties to Philadelphia, having worked for several companies in that region before joining Achillion, and had been commuting to New Haven during the work week and returning to Philly on weekends, according to the article.
Spun out of Yale in 1998, publicly traded Achillion has undergone a major management shakeup in the last year as it reorganized and shifted its focus from infectious diseases to rare disorders. In addition to Truitt, the company has named a new chief operating officer, chief business officer, chief medical officer and chief financial officer.
The company’s board of directors also elected a new chair, Nicole Vitullo, earlier this year; she succeeded Connecticut bioscience entrepreneur and Achillion founder David Scheer, who remains on the board.
Achillion is developing drugs that inhibit Factor D, an enzyme of the complement system, which is part of the immune system and plays a role in some immune-related disorders.
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New Haven-based neuro-drug maker Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holding Co. Ltd. said last week it enrolled its first patient in a late-stage clinical trial of its drug troriluzole to treat generalized anxiety disorder.
The drug is a new chemical entity that modulates glutamate, the most abundant excitatory neurotransmitter in the human body, according to Biohaven.
The company said studies show dysregulation of the brain chemical could possibly play a role in generalized anxiety disorder, which affects roughly 7 million Americans, but existing treatments target different neurotransmitters.
The Phase 3 study will enroll around 372 patients diagnosed with the disorder from throughout the U.S. to see if the drug impacts either the severity or type of symptoms they experience.
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The U.S. Food & Drug Administration has agreed to a speedy review of an application submitted by Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. to market its blockbuster drug Soliris for another rare disease: neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD).
The company, which has a major research presence in New Haven, said the regulatory agency set a June 28 deadline to act on the application.
NMOSD is a rare, relapsing and progressive central nervous system disorder that can cause blindness, paralysis and premature death and for which there is no approved treatment, the company said.
“Given the debilitating impact NMOSD relapses can have on patients. . .we are committed to getting Soliris to these patients as quickly as possible,” said Alexion R&D chief John Orloff, M.D.
Contact Natalie Missakian at news@newhavenbiz.com
