Friday, May 16, 2008

Eisai closing MGI Pharma cancer lab

By Ryan McBride

Japanese drug company Eisai Co. Ltd. has informed 80 workers in Lexington that it plans to close its research facility there, a company spokeswoman confirmed.

News of the shutdown comes after more than a year of rapid growth at the facility, the site of its MGI Pharma Inc. subsidiary, where the number of scientists and support staff had swelled from 30 people to 80 people since early 2007. But plans have drastically changed at the R&D shop, which Eisai acquired as part of its purchase of Bloomington, Minn.-based MGI for $3.9 billion five months ago.

Eisai spokeswoman Suzanne Grogan did not say whether employees in Lexington would be offered jobs at other Eisai sites. She said the company may make further decisions about the Lexington operation in 30 to 60 days. “Everything’s being evaluated and determined,” Grogan said.

Eisai, which has U.S. headquarters in New Jersey, employs about 225 scientists and other workers at Eisai Research Institute of Boston Inc. in Andover, Grogan said. Local executives suggested that MGI’s research of cancer treatments, now in Lexington, could move there.

 MGI remains in operation at 35 Hartwell Ave., Lexington, and has recently vacated space it had leased at 44 Hartwell Ave., where life sciences firm Raindance Technologies Inc. of Guilford, Conn., plans to relocate. MGI began operations in Massachusetts following its 2004 buyout of Lexington biotech firm Zycos Inc.

The MGI operation in Lexington is not the first casualty of large pharma buyouts of biotech firms in Massachusetts. Last month, New York drug giant Pfizer Inc. confirmed that it expected to close the Wellesley headquarters of Coley Pharmaceutical Group Inc., which Pfizer bought in December 2007 for $164 million, affecting 40 Coley employees.

However, an industry official said life sciences workers are in high demand in Massachusetts and can usually find jobs quickly. “We’ve had some recent closings and the employees are scooped right up by other companies,” said Peter Abair, director of economic development for the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, a life sciences industry group in Cambridge.

Indeed, there are several biotech companies rapidly adding employees in the Bay State. To name one, Shire Human Genetic Therapies, a unit of British drug firm Shire PLC, is recruiting workers for its expansion and new base of operations in Lexington, where it expects to add 680 workers over the next eight years.

Also, New York pharma company Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. is in the midst of building a biologics plant in Devens, with plans to grow its work force there from 105 employees as of last month to 350 workers by 2011.