Arvinas
A private biomedical company hatched in Science Park is growing — and not even leaving town, or the neighborhood, to do it.
The company is Arvinas LLC, which develops cancer drugs based on research into protein degradation conducted by Yale’s Craig Crews, who founded the company in 2013 and now serves as chief scientific advisor.
Science Park Develpment Corporation announced Wednesday that Arvinas has signed a new five-year lease at the tech incubator that inhabits the former Winchester Repeating Arms complex at the gateway to the Newhallville neighobhrood.
The company, which current occupies 9,645 square feet on the third floor of 5 Science Park, will occupy 27,578 square feet under the new lease, according to a release issued Wednesday afternoon.
That’s the way founders of Science Park envisioned the complex working at its own founding 35 years ago: start-ups hatched by Yale researchers would grow on site and hire lots of New Haveners. Often, though, companies left town upon growing. (One such company, Alexion, moved back to town in 2016, then turned around and decided to re-move much of its headquarters to Boston.)
“Our decision to renew our lease was easy. With offices, labs, a larger vivarium and its proximity to Yale, Science Park is the perfect place for innovation. Support and investment from the City of New Haven, the State of Connecticut and their partners have made Science Park a great neighborhood to work in,” the release quoted Arvinas CEO John Houston as saying.
“New Haven has the talent and the space to support growth in the biomedical sector. Science Park is one of those spaces,” added Ginny Kozlowski, CEO of the Economic Development Corporation of New Haven.
This past October, Genentech, which has a licensing deal with Arvinas, agreed to invest $650 million in the company. This month Arvinas announced a similar $830 million collaboration with Pfizer.
Very exciting for New Haven and for Yale! I hope that our state reps, state senators and alders will support this kind of development by working in collaboration with New Haven's biggest employers to stimulate more such home grown companies going forward. We need to throw out politicians, such as Senator Winfield, who instead work incoherently against New Haven's economic growth in the name of 'good jobs'.