Talent hunt spurs Sarepta's cross-country move to booming Boston hub

Score another win for Boston in the high-stakes game of developing a thriving biotech hub. Xconomy's Luke Timmerman has the scoop this morning that the promising Seattle-based biotech Sarepta ($SRPT) is making the big move to Cambridge, MA.

Sarepta's CEO says the cross-country move makes a lot of sense as it sets the stage to become a break-out drug developer focused on rare diseases, with a promising lead drug for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Boston is a great source of talent, and Sarepta believes it's the best place to grow a biotech business. 

"It was a decision we made with a lot of thought," CEO Chris Garabedian tells Xconomy. "As we have focused in more on rare diseases, and looked for people with necessary skills in development, biostats, regulatory affairs, we found that many of the people we were interested in were already living in Boston, and not interested in moving to Seattle."  

Sarepta has about 40 of its 110 workers in its Bothell, WA, facility, with the rest in Cambridge and Oregon. And it's hiring, hoping to build on the positive data it's seen in a study of 12 boys with DMD. Since Garabedian took over, the company has changed its strategy to concentrate on rare diseases, changed its name and now changed coasts. It's also seen its stock price grow from less than a dollar to $13.77 this morning. 

- here's the story from Xconomy