Roche, the fifth-largest pharmaceutical company in the world, announced this morning that it would create an innovation center at Harvard’s enterprise research campus (ERC) in Allston. The firm, which employs 25,000 people in the United States and claims the title of “world’s largest biotechnology company,” will team with independent subsidiary Genentech to create a hub focused on research and development in cardiovascular, renal, and metabolic diseases. Of the 440,000 square feet of laboratory and office space now being built as part of the first phase of the ERC’s development, Roche will initially lease 30,000 square feet, although the company said that it “intends to invest over the coming years into a research and development presence with eventually up to 500 employees.” The Roche Genentech Innovation Center will also support the two companies’ use of AI and data science to “accelerate drug discovery and development.”
In the announcement, Roche said that its investment reflected the company’s “dedication to advancing healthcare through academic and scientific collaboration and will serve to strengthen an existing relationship between Harvard and Roche that has been in place for well over a decade. These drug discovery efforts have included work to combat antibiotic resistant bacteria as well as the use of AI in cancer research to identify targeted approaches to treatment, and to analyze the effectiveness of new cancer drugs in clinical trials.” Roche has supported research in several Harvard laboratories, including, for example, those of Wyss professor of biologically inspired engineering Jennifer Lewis, who has been working with a Roche scientist to develop a 3-D printed kidney, and Higgins professor of chemistry and chemical biology and of molecular and cellular biology Daniel Kahne, who is working to develop new antibiotics.
The investment drew praise from Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey ’92 and from Boston Mayor Michelle Wu ’07, J.D. ’12, both of whom hailed the region’s strength in life sciences research. President Alan Garber said that “when leading biomedical companies and research universities work together, breakthroughs follow. We are delighted that the Roche Genentech Innovation Center will launch the first phase of the Enterprise Research Campus. Building on an already strong and extensive partnership, the new Center will bring new talent and new opportunities to pursue our shared commitment to discovery for the advancement of human health.”
Roche’s lease announcement may come as a special relief to both Harvard, which owns the land, and Tishman Speyer, which is developing the ERC privately. Given the slowdown in venture funding of biotechnology enterprises, emerging signs that the Trump administration will reduce federal support for life-sciences research, and the reported glut of biotech laboratory space for lease in Greater Boston (the vacancy rate now exceeds 20 percent), a tenant announcement has to be encouraging for the huge first phase of the project. The timing of development of a proposed second phase of the ERC, similar in scale, probably depends on the success in attracting tenants to this first round of large buildings, where occupancy is scheduled by next year.
