Booming Regeneron snaps up more office/lab space in fast-growing campus

Landmark at Eastview research campus in Tarrytown, NY

Boosted by a major new drug approval, a booming Regeneron Pharmaceuticals ($REGN) is swelling rapidly in size. The big biotech has added 116,200 square feet of office/lab space to its lease at the Landmark at Eastview research campus in Tarrytown, NY, about 30 minutes from Manhattan. The expansion swells Regeneron's footprint on the campus to a giant-sized 1.1 million square feet, according to landlord BioMed Realty Trust.

The big biotech is already planning to occupy an additional 297,000 square feet in two buildings now under construction, according to GlobeSt.com. And then there's a reported option on a 100-acre parcel nearby to provide more office and research space as needed.

Regeneron has been growing fast for several years now. The company has been earning considerable market respect for the blockbuster eye drug Eylea. Newly approved Praluent has started to make inroads on a whole new cholesterol market for PCSK9 drugs. The anti-inflammatory dupilumab is in Phase III and sarilumab, an antibody for rheumatoid arthritis that is part of a wide portfolio of drugs partnered with Sanofi ($SNY), is winding its way to an FDA decision.

Regeneron spent $390 million on R&D last quarter--a 32% increase over the same period the year before--as the biotech pushes hard to add more drug approvals in the near term. Some of that cash is also earmarked for the Phase III program for REGN2222 for respiratory syncytial virus as well as the midstage fasinumab for osteoarthritis pain and REGN2176-3, a new and improved version of Eylea for age-related macular degeneration.

A spokesperson for Regeneron notes the company had 2,300 staffers at the end of 2013, 3,000 at the end of last year and anticipates a headcount of 4,000 by the end of this year.

- here's the release