Officials at Eli Lilly say the company plans to establish the Lilly Cambridge Innovation Center in Kendall Square in Massachusetts to focus on new drug delivery and device approaches. According to Lilly chairman, president, and CEO, John C. Lechleiter, Ph.D., the company is locating a portion of its delivery and device organization in Cambridge to take advantage of the area's rich engineering talent base and life sciences ecosystem.
“The Lilly Cambridge Innovation Center complements a deliberate push by the company to be an industry leader in providing convenient, reliable drug delivery and device innovation,” noted Dr. Lechleiter. “Locating in Cambridge is an important strategic move for achieving this goal, as it provides us access to a concentration of high-caliber academic institutions, cutting-edge life science and technology companies, and some of the world's leading talent.”
He added that the center will serve as a portal for external partnerships and collaboration activities with the company's existing research facilities in San Diego, New York City, and Indianapolis.
Construction of the center will begin immediately, with an expected occupancy by the end of 2015. Over the next two years, the company reports that it will hire about 30 scientists and engineers to fulfill the center's work. When fully operational, the center will increase the company's delivery and device research and development space by nearly 50%, while increasing its staff by 25%, said Dr. Lechleiter.
Last June Pfizer opened an R&D facility in Cambridge where its scientists began work on a range of clinical programs across therapeutic areas that include inflammation, immunology, rare disease, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, and neuroscience.