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Wednesday, February 11, 2009
RXi Pharmaceuticals extends lease in Worcester
By Mass High Tech staff
In their own words: Tod Woolf, CEO, RXi Pharmaceuticals Corp.
RXi Pharmaceuticals Corp., an RNA-interference (RNAi)-focused biotech, has extended its lease on its existing facilities at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute Life Sciences and Bioengineering Center at Gateway Park.
RXi (Nasdaq: RXII), which moved to Worcester at the end of 2007, added two more years to its lease to carry out its research there through August 2011. The company develops RNA interference drugs designed to block genes linked to disease from producing proteins. RXi was launched in January 2007 with a scientific advisory board chaired by University of Massachusetts researcher Craig Mello, winner of a 2006 Nobel prize for his research of RNAi.
The location enables companies within Gateway Park to share core equipment and resources, RXi president and CEO Tod Woolf said in a statement. As part of the lease, RXi also has the flexibility to move within Gateway Park to the next life sciences building to be constructed.
D’Anne Hurd, vice president for business development at Gateway Park, said in a statement that the life sciences companies work well with WPI’s academic resources in the area.
As of December, Gateway Park had an atypical real estate problem of more interest than it could keep up with. At the time, the technology and life sciences center needed to develop a new building within two years or it potentially risked losing both new tenants and existing tenants seeking room to grow. And given the expense of building a facility with lab space, the center sought tenants outside of the science and technology sectors, according to Roberta Brien, senior project manager with the Worcester Business Development Corp., co-owner of Gateway Park.
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