It’s been over a year since U.K.-based AstraZeneca finalized its $39 billion acquisition of New Haven-born Alexion.And while the deal may have stoked fears about what it would mean for Alexion’s Elm City presence, recent months have shown local growth and expansion are on the horizon.In April, the company, now Alexion, AstraZeneca’s Rare Disease group, […]
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It’s been over a year since U.K.-based AstraZeneca finalized its $39 billion acquisition of New Haven-born Alexion.
And while the deal may have stoked fears about what it would mean for Alexion’s Elm City presence, recent months have shown local growth and expansion are on the horizon.
In April, the company, now Alexion, AstraZeneca’s Rare Disease group, announced plans to expand in New Haven by leasing space at the new bioscience tower currently under construction at 101 College St.
The company is headquartered in Boston, but has roughly 550 employees working in New Haven at its existing research facility, at 100 College St.
Alexion indicated it expects to occupy the additional space by the end of 2023. The expansion will double its lab floor space and grow its research capabilities, according to the company, which has been on a hiring spree.
Developer Carter Winstanley is building the 10-story tower at 101 College St., and once finished, it will have roughly 500,000 square feet of laboratory, research and meeting space. In addition to Alexion, it has already attracted tenants such as Yale University and bioscience company Arvinas.
Coinciding with the local expansion, AstraZeneca in April announced plans to open a new headquarters for its Alexion Rare Disease group and a strategic R&D center in the Boston area by 2026.
Alexion has developed treatments for a range of disorders and diseases, such as lysosomal acid lipase deficiency (a genetic disease associated with multi-organ damage) and neurofibromatosis (which causes benign tumors along nerves in the body), among others. Alexion reported $6.07 billion in annual revenue in 2020, pre-acquisition. AstraZeneca reported total rare disease revenue post acquisition, or from July 21 through Dec. 31, 2021, of $3.07 billion.
Alexion has five medicines approved currently, including Kanuma, Koselugo, Soliris, Strensiq and Ultomiris, according to its website.
The company continues to expand its drug portfolio, pipeline, and disease targets. In May, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Ultomiris for use in adults with a common form of myasthenia gravis, an autoimmune neuromuscular disease involving loss of muscle function and severe weakness.
In September, the company grew its drug pipeline through the acquisition of New Jersey-based Caelum Biosciences and its drug against amyloidosis, a rare blood disease.
New Haven Biz recently chatted with Sharon Barr, senior vice president, head of research and product development at Alexion, about what the AstraZeneca acquisition has meant for the company, and what the future holds for its presence in New Haven.
Barr leads efforts to invent new therapies for patients with rare diseases and make them available for clinical trials.
What impact has the July 2021 AstraZeneca deal had on Alexion?
I have been at Alexion for nine years and I have seen a lot of changes during that time. From my perspective, the acquisition by AstraZeneca is the most positive of those changes. It has led to an increased investment in research, expansion of our portfolio, and growth across the company.
Most importantly, we have become part of an even larger scientific community, and that has been wonderful for us.
It has given us the opportunity to collaborate within AstraZeneca, to create therapies we had long hoped to do.
I will give you an example. As a company focused on rare diseases, we would love to be able to create gene therapies. Now that we are part of AstraZeneca, those capabilities are available to us. We are working with our partners at AstraZeneca to make that a reality.
What are the company’s plans in New Haven?
I have lived in the Greater New Haven community for nine years, and I absolutely love living and working here. I am delighted that AstraZeneca has made a purposeful investment in our research center of excellence here in New Haven.
We are growing. We have hired 107 people into the New Haven site in 2022, and we have another 50 open positions, and we keep adding more. Sixty of those new hires are in R&D, so we are adding new scientists to our team here in New Haven.
To accommodate all of these new colleagues, we are going to need to grow our footprint. So we are doubling our footprint here in New Haven by moving into additional space in the new building in 101 College.
Have you been able to attract enough talent?
We have hired 60 people in R&D and 107 people into New Haven so far this year. We are not having trouble attracting people. And I think that is because we have such an exciting story to tell.
How many total employees do you anticipate having in New Haven once the 101 College St. project is finished?
We have 550 people right now in the New Haven site. We are rapidly growing. I can’t quite predict how many we will have by the end of 2023 when construction is finished, but I do know that all of our groups are expanding.
How many floors will you occupy at 101 College?
Alexion will have one-and-a-half floors, so we will be on floor one and floor seven. The reason we have chosen to do that is because some of the science we do is highly specialized, and it is best suited to space on the first floor.
What appealed to the company about the 101 College building?
We really do need more lab space here in New Haven. To be able to have the kind of square footage that we need, moving into a new building was the obvious choice for us.
The fact that it is directly across the street from where we currently work now just adds to the appeal. We are very, very excited to be working with Carter Winstanley, who also created the building we are in now.
Why New Haven?
We have an excellent team here in New Haven, and we have been very fortunate to be able to recruit top talent to this site in New Haven, because it is a vibrant biotech community that is constantly growing.
Is the company committed to staying in New Haven for the long term?
Absolutely, and I am thrilled about that. Alexion does not have research space anywhere outside of New Haven. This will always be our research center of excellence.
This year marks the 30th anniversary for Alexion. Alexion was born here in New Haven with scientists from Yale building a startup in Science Park, and 30 years later, this company has become a multinational leader in rare disease. We are very excited about both our history and where we are going in the future.
What is the company primarily focused on for its research?
Alexion is and continues to be focused on rare diseases. We create new therapies for patients and their families who are dealing with rare disease and have few other options.
We chose to focus on rare diseases because it is such a huge unmet medical need.
Will Alexion be targeting additional rare diseases soon?
Absolutely, unfortunately I can’t speak to that. It is confidential. I can say that we are really excited about our continually growing portfolio, and our ability to serve additional patients with rare diseases.
What are some of the biggest challenges the company faces?
From a science perspective, one of our big challenges is that rare disease is rare. Finding the patients who suffer from those diseases, so that we can better understand the physiology of the disease and create the right therapeutic, is tricky. That is also what makes it so scientifically interesting.
