Fast-growing Alexion Pharmaceuticals is hiring. After snagging Taligen Therapeutics near the beginning of this year for $111 million plus a milestone package, the biotech says that it now plans to boost its staff of 125 by a third, adding more than 40 workers to fill 20,000 square feet of office and lab space that is being added to its facilities in Smithfield, RI.
Mass High Tech reports that the expansion should be wrapped by the end of next year. Last summer the FDA sanctioned the developer's manufacturing facility as a source of Soliris, its drug for a rare blood disorder called paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria. The Providence Business News notes that Alexion bought its Smithfield complex in 2006 and has invested $150 million in its expansion.
Alexion has also been expanding its pipeline in recent months. In addition to the Taligen buyout, which netted six new drug programs and a platform for discovering more that can address inflammatory and immune conditions, the biotech spent $3 million for a cPMP replacement therapy from Orphatec. That therapy is designed to treat patients with molybdenum cofactor deficiency Type A, a rare genetic disorder. And just days ago Alexion announced a two-for-one stock split that expanded the number of shares outstanding to 290 million.
- read the story from Mass High Tech
- see the Providence Business News report