One biopharmaceutical company has left The Landmark at Eastview campus and Westchester County and another, larger one is expanding its operations in the recently vacated laboratory space and in two new buildings in the biotechnology complex.
Officials at BioMed Realty Trust Inc., the San Diego, Calif.-based owner of The Landmark at Eastview, said Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. signed a new 15-year lease for approximately 80,000 square feet at 765 Old Saw Mill River Road on the campus that straddles the town borders of Greenburgh and Mount Pleasant. The landlord also released Regeneron from a previous lease obligation on the eight-building campus, resulting in a net expansion of approximately 41,000 square feet for the 21-year-old company headquartered there.
The vacated space had been leased by Emisphere Technologies Inc. for its biopharmaceutical research and development labs. BioMed Realty in April agreed to terminate the lease, scheduled to expire in 2012, in exchange for $2.25 million in payments by Emisphere.
An Emisphere spokesman last week said the company has moved all of its Westchester operations to its headquarters in Cedar Knolls, N.J. The company had 46 employees at The Landmark.
Emisphere officials told shareholders the move will save $14 million in lease payments and immediately reduce the company”™s monthly cash burn rate by about $300,000.
Joanne Deyo, Regeneron vice president for facilities, last week said the company by the end of this summer will move into an additional 229,000 square feet of space as sole tenant in two of the three new campus buildings built by BioMed since 2007 at a cost of $145 million. The new facilities will house corporate headquarters, research and development labs and Regeneron”™s clinical division, she said.
Regeneron leases a total of about 390,000 square feet at The Landmark.
Murray Goldberg, Regeneron”™s chief financial officer, said the recent lease deal with BioMed allowed the biopharmaceutical developer and manufacturer “to secure the facilities needed to support our growth and achieve our goal to continue to develop and commercialize medicines for the treatment of serious medical conditions.”
Arcalyst, a subcutaneous injection that is Regeneron”™s first commercialized product, in early 2008 was approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in the treatment of certain rare inflammatory diseases in adults and children. The publicly traded company shipped $4.3 million of the product to its U.S. distributors during the first quarter of 2009 and projects shipments to total approximately $15 million to $20 million this year.
Regeneron also has therapeutic candidates in clinical trials for the potential treatment of cancer, eye diseases, inflammatory diseases and pain and has preclinical programs in other diseases and disorders.
Regeneron reported a net loss of $17.5 million or 22 cents per share for the first quarter of 2009, compared with a net loss of $11.6 million or 15 cents per share for the first quarter of 2008. The company reported a net loss of $82.7 million or $1.05 per share in 2008 compared with a net loss of $105.6 million or $1.59 per share in 2007.
At the start of this year, Regeneron employed 673 workers at its Eastview location and 246 workers at its biologics manufacturing facility in upstate Rensselaer.
