The world’s largest pharmaceutical company, Eli Lilly and Company, is bringing about 700 biotech workers into the Seaport area after it officially opened its new research and development facility in Boston on Tuesday.
Located at 15 Necco St. in the Fort Point neighborhood along the Seaport district, the $700 million Lilly Seaport Innovation Center, or LSC, will employ 500 of the company’s scientists and researchers focused on genetic therapies.
“We are committed to being supportive neighbors in this hub of discovery and innovation,” Daniel Skovronsky, chief scientific officer and president, Lilly Research Laboratories, president, Lilly Immunology, said in a release.
He added the building’s opening “expands upon Lilly’s long-standing presence in the Boston area” and will allow for further collaboration “with leading institutions and new talent.”
The pharma giant’s previous hub on the East Coast had opened in Cambridge in 2015 with 10 employees and has since grown to more than 200, LSC Senior Director and Chief Operations Officer Michael Harrison told the Boston Business Journal on Monday.
Lilly does not plan on keeping the Cambridge space, he added.
“The fact of the matter is that we grew out of that space and we saw Seaport as an opportunity to continue to grow and innovate,” Allison Howell, associate director of R&D communications at Lilly, told the outlet.
The new 346,000-square-foot, 12-story site will house laboratories and office space for medicine development to target illnesses such as diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular diseases, neurodegeneration and chronic pain.
Lilly Gateway Labs will also be integrated into the space to bring an additional 200 employees from 12 to 15 other member companies.
This incubation program allows startup biotechs to receive resources, guidance and funding from the pharma giant. Though there’s “no strings attached” and the companies do not need to partner with Lilly, they do have the opportunity to do so, Howell told the Business Journal.
An “internal food truck” out of an Airstream, a gaming room and a rooftop deck top off amenities at the innovation hub, the outlet reported.