Thursday, July 10, 2008

Menino touts three biotech moves in Boston

By Mass High Tech Staff

In an announcement today, Mayor Tom Menino reported on the moves of three biotech companies to — or across — Boston as feathers in the cap of the city’s LifeTech initiative.

Menino noted that Soadco SL, which is based in Andorra, plans to locate its U.S. headquarters and manufacturing in Massachusetts, a story Mass High Tech first revealed in June at the BIO 2008 conference. The company specializes in dental implants. Soadco officials have already established a U.S. subsidiary, known as Klockner of North America in Boston. Eduardo Vivas, CEO of Klockner, said the company plans to build a manufacturing facility in Cambridge or Waltham. Once the manufacturing plant is complete, Vivas said, the company plans to add as many as 100 more jobs.

Paratek Pharmaceuticals Inc., a Boston-based maker of antibiotics for infections, intends to relocate 65 employees from Kneeland Street to the South Boston waterfront, with the plan to add 50 more workers. Paratek plans to renovate its 63,000-square-foot facility with a $14 million tax-exempt empowerment zone bond from Boston Connects Inc. Paratek closed on a $40 million funding round in April to move its next-generation antibiotic into Phase 3 trials.

Cambridge-based bioanalytics company Cogito Health Inc. also plans to move 10 employees from Cambridge to a 3,000-square-foot facility in Boston, adding 10 more workers at the new location.