How do you move a major biotech company?
As it turns out, very carefully. After all it”™s not just computers and paper clips.
“Clearly, it”™s different because of the logistical challenges involved in getting labs moved on a Friday night and up and running on Monday,” said Dr. David Epstein, senior vice president, chief scientific officer at OSI Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Last July, OSI ”“ perhaps best known for Tarceva, a drug approved to treat non-small cell lung and pancreatic cancer ”“ announced plans to consolidate its U.S. operations into a single campus at 420 Saw Mill River Road in Ardsley. The company bought the 400,000-square-foot office and laboratory space for $27 million and expects to save more than $15 million by moving employees from the Farmingdale and Melville, N.Y. locations ”“ as well as those in Boulder, Colo. and Cedar Knolls, N.J. ”“ to Ardsley.
OSI”™s research and development division related to diabetes and obesity will continue to be based in Oxford, England.
OSI will begin the move this month, which means that soon Epstein will be having a jam-packed weekend. And yet in a brief phone interview, his is a voice of calm, punctuated by a laugh when the reporter compliments his demeanor.
“We can do all this, because we have special movers and packers who pack it up and crate it over,” he says of the relocation, which OSI has done several times before.
Sensitive specimens are transported in freezers loaded onto vans containing generators. Lab equipment is meticulously packaged. Once everything is in place, the building will be pressure-tested to ensure that the utilities run with the full load of equipment, Epstein said.
The company is moving more than petri dishes. Epstein is one of roughly 350 employees who”™ll be relocating as well.
Ardsley and Westchester County have been helping to ease the process, conducting tours for prospective homebuyers, says Kathy Galante, OSI”™s senior director, investor and public relations.
Says Epstein: “I”™m looking forward to the move.”
