Novartis to expand global research HQ

Novartis will add 300 new jobs and invest US$600m to expand its global research headquarters campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US.

Novartis will add 300 new jobs and invest US$600m to expand its global research headquarters campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US. The Swiss pharmaceutical company plans to expand its current Massachusetts Avenue campus, adjacent to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, by more than 400,000ft², including laboratory, office and retail space.

The building work, which is expected to begin in 2011, will take place over the next five years.

Mark Fishman, president of the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, said the firm was the first global pharmaceutical company to move its research HQ to Massachusetts, in 2002. Since then, he said: ‘It has achieved prominence and, we believe, helped to amplify Cambridge''s magnetism for others in the biomedical field to follow.’

Fishman added: ‘Our scientists and physicians here already have discovered a host of new medicines, and established fruitful collaborations with academic, clinical, and biotech in