CAT to expand operations in Cambridge
Cambridge Antibody Technology (CAT) said today that it is expanding its operations in Cambridge by leasing the building currently known as Unit GP15 on Granta Park, the science park near Cambridge, which is already home to two of the company's facilities.
Unit GP15, which was previously occupied by Millennium Pharmaceuticals who vacated the building in 2003, will provide CAT with an additional 92,000 square feet of state-of-the-art laboratory and associated open-plan office space. The company will significantly alter the internal layout of the building before it moves in, sometime in the next 12 to 15 months.
Hamish Cameron (pictured), CAT's Chief Executive, said: “This investment in CAT's future is essential for us to achieve our planned expansion as part of the AstraZeneca group of companies. CAT is on a journey to create an outstanding biopharmaceutical company and is central to AstraZeneca's plans to establish a major international presence in the research and development of biological therapeutics”.
Next year, CAT will recruit “a significant number of new staff, across all functions and at all levels, to join our team and this additional space is being prepared to accommodate this growth”, he said.
”Unit GP15 is ideal for us, and when fully occupied will house between 250-300 people. It is a high quality building and, being so close to our existing facilities on Granta Park, it will allow many of our staff to continue to work easily and closely together, an important feature of CAT's working culture, and one which we will strive to maintain as we grow”, Dr Cameron said.
CAT will rename the building.
AstranZeneca acquired CAT earlier this year £702m. The Cambridge company specializes in the discovery and development of human therapeutic antibodies and has an advanced proprietary platform technology for rapidly isolating human monoclonal antibodies using phage display and ribosome display systems.
It has extensive phage antibody libraries, currently incorporating more than 100 billion distinct antibodies. These libraries form the basis for its strategy to develop a portfolio of antibody-based drugs.
It currently employs around 300 people in Cambridge and in Palo Alto, US.
7th November 2006
