BMS Shakes Up R&D Group

Joining the big pharma rush into Kendall Square, Bristol-Myers Squibb is creating a new research hub in Cambridge, Mass. The move is part of a larger shake-up of the company’s R&D operations, which includes the decision to quit virology research. BMS’s Cambridge facility, to open in 2018, will house early research around genetically defined diseases as well as the company’s discovery chemistry platform. Some 200 employees will move to Kendall Square from facilities in Wallingford, Conn., and Waltham, Mass.; others will be recruited locally. BMS will close the Wallingford and Waltham sites by 2018; up to 500 Wallingford employees will shift to a new Connecticut location. BMS is also upgrading plans for its San Francisco Bay Area site, a cancer immunotherapy research hub that is currently being expanded. The company will add another 61,000 sq ft of lab and office space and relocate about 40 scientists from its Seattle site. As part of its R&D shifts, BMS is getting out of virology, where it has focused on hepatitis B and HIV. The decision will cost 100 discovery scientists their jobs. Marketed virology drugs and those already in the pipeline are not affected by the move.