MedImmune, big biotechs plot major 2009 expansion

Biotech companies are being rapidly divided among three distinct classes: growing biotechs worth more than a billion dollars, survivors with money in the bank and a growing segment of downsizing small and mid-sized companies.

MedImmune, for example, has blueprinted a 300,000-square-foot expansion of its corporate headquarters in Gaithersburg, MD, almost doubling the amount of HQ space it has. The expansion is largely new lab space, which will accommodate 600 employees. And MedImmune plans to go ahead and hire another 800 people next year, on top of the 800 it hired this year.

Meanwhile, even though much of the rest of Boston's economy is in a tailspin, the city's largest biotech companies are enjoying a surge in growth, with many hiring for dozens of open positions. Biogen Idec is hunting for new personnel to fill 106 positions, according to the Boston Business Journal, while Genzyme is advertising more than 100 jobs and Vertex is recruiting 89.

"We've added 10 percent to our workforce over the past year," Scott Santoro, senior director for talent acquisition at Biogen, tells the Business Journal. The fast growth is happening at biotechs with a market cap north of $1 billion.

- check out the report in the Washington Business Journal
- read the story in the Boston Business Journal

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