Contributed Photo
Researchers at work in Alexion's current labs.
Instead of leaving town, one of the city’s major biomedical employers plans to move into new space and create new jobs.
The employer is Alexion, a pharmaceutical company that was hatched in New Haven and hit the big time — so big that AstraZeneca bought it for $39 billion last year.
That purchase led to fears that Alexion — now the rare disease group of AstraZeneca — would move research and lab jobs out of its 100 College St. space (subsidized to the tune of $41 million by the state) to Boston, where executives were being reassigned.
On Thursday the company announced that it will double its current lab space in New Haven by occupying new space at the new Winstanley-built tower arising across the street at 101 College. The company stated in a release that it expects to move in there by “the end of 2023,” and that the space will be Platinum-level LEED certified.
Meanwhile, spokesperson Lisa Taylor said the company is maintaining the 500 positions in its current 100 College St. labs. Fifty of those research-and-development positions are currently open; the company is recruiting to fill them.
Alexion produces drugs to treat rare diseases. Its hallmark drugs, Soliris and Ultomiris, treat blood disorders.
Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce President Garrett Sheehan hailed the Alexion expansion, saying it will “be key to address the concerns over lab space in the state.”
The city has been banking on biomedical and biotech companies like Alexion to fuel economic growth and create jobs, as well as high school and college internships, in a district growing atop the gradually disassembled Route 34 Connector mini-highway.
Inside Alexion.
We're going to need more buildings like 101 College ASAP. Luckily there are a couple of sites that would be perfect for more high-rise office buildings along South Frontage between College and Church, or by the train station.