“We are delighted that a compound we discovered will now be able to help patients who have been suffering for a long time and also that the company is growing and developing so that we will be able to bring more drugs to the market,” says Andy Williams, MedImmune’s VP and Cambridge Site General Manager. “And the fantastic thing about it is that three of the people who identified the antibody 12 years ago here in Cambridge are still with MedImmune, which is very unusual in this industry.”
The new drug, belimumab (known as Benlysta), has been approved by the US Food & Drug Administration for marketing in the US and is about to be available through Human Genome Sciences and GlaxoSmithKline for sufferers of Lupus, an auto-immune disease in which a person’s antibodies attack themselves. Around 1 in 1000 people suffer from Lupus. The antibody was originally identified in Cambridge by the then Cambridge Antibody Technology (now MedImmmune, the global biologics unit of AstraZeneca) in collaboration with Human Genome Sciences. “This is the second major new drug which has been discovered at our Cambridge facility following on from adalimumab (known as Humira) a leadingrheumatoid arthritis biologic.”
MedImmune’s new offices at Granta Park’s Riverside facility will initially house 50 staff involved in clinical development and will grow to 90 in the next one to two years. The company has fitted out the building to include the installation of a high definition video conferencing suite for communicating with its sites worldwide. In just nine years MedImmune has expanded from one 20,000 sq ft laboratory building to more than 200,000 sq ft of laboratory and office buildings at Granta Park. Adds Andy Williams: “Granta Park has stood beside us in good and bad times and their flexibility and responsiveness has allowed us to grow at the rate we have wanted to, which has often been a big growth and then nothing for a while. They have bent over backwards to fully understand and meet our needs, allowing us to grow from 300 to 500 staff based on the Estate in the last three years.”
MedImmune has and continues to be involved in the scientific community of Granta Park, including collaborating with other companies such as with scientific poster events. Adds Williams: “Having companies such as Pfizer here is a good thing for us, improving the buzz and creating a scientific community.”
Adds Andrew Barlow, Managing Director of Granta Park: “We are delighted that MedImmune’s UK team at Granta Park has once again played a vital role in the development of an expected blockbuster drug. Over the last ten years MedImmune has grown ten-fold at Granta Park. This growth is made possible because the MEPC team works closely with MedImmune in order to understand the company’s changing business needs. Also, the MEPC is continually looking for ways to add value to the businesses at Granta Park and has done so through the development of a special science community. MedImmune’s involvement in MEPC’s scientific poster events, senior team lunches, networking dinners and social programme including the Granta Park Choir are a vital part of that special community.”
Managed and operated by MEPC, Granta Park is located south of Cambridge in the heart of the Cambridge Science Cluster. As well as MedImmune companies on the science park include Pfizer, PPD and TWI. The McClintock Building and Riverside Development offer flexible office and R & D units, allowing growing companies to work within a thriving science community, which includes a sports and social programme, cafe, restaurant, nursery, fitness suite, commuter bus and 24 hour security and free meeting facilities. Space is available from 800 sq ft (74 sq m) to 330,000 sq ft (31,000 sq m) ranging from flexible leases on fully fitted offices to development land ready for specialist buildings to be built. To find out more visit www.grantapark.co.uk.
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