Sanofi Chief Likes Bay State Biotech

Sanofi-Aventis sign, just outside of the Bridgewater, NJ,
facility on Route 202/206 south. (Bergeron Image)

New Jersey may be the pharmaceutical capital of the east coast, if not of the entire United States, but it’s getting plenty of competition from the Boston area, especially in the market segment of biotechnology. 

Boston has caught the eye of Sanofi chief executive, Christopher A. Viehbacher who, while addressing The Chief Executives’ Club in Boston characterized the Boston-Cambridge area as having “the most fertile environment in the world today,” as a result of  “its innovation ecosystem,” which Viehbacher attributes to “the area’s dense cluster of universities, hospitals, biotechnology start-ups, and venture capital firms.”

That’s very sobering news for New Jersey, because it may very well be true.  Yet, I hope it is not, because it’s already costing New Jersey jobs, something that you may not be fully aware of.

Sanofi’s Acquisition of Genzyme to Impact Bridgewater Lab

Outside one of the Sanofi facilities (Route 202/206 south) Bridgeweater, NJ

The April, 2011, Sanofi acquisition of Genzyme, a leading biotechnology company based in Boston, Massachusetts, will, according to an article appearing in last Tuesday’s Boston Globe, lead to the closing of a research lab in Bridgewater, New Jersey.

According to that report by Robert Weisman, “Sanofi is closing a New Jersey drug research lab because it has been less productive than Genzyme’s labs, which have developed treatments for rare diseases, Sanofi chief executive Christopher A. Viehbacher told investors gathered here [in San Francisco] at the 30th annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference.”

Sanofi-Aventis Negotiates Deal, Buys Genzyme for $20.1 Billion

Paris-based Sanofi-Aventis, the world’s fourth-largest drug company, with U.S. headquarters in Bridgewater, New Jersey, announced today that it has entered into an agreement to purchase Genzyme Corp., according to a report in The Boston Globe. 

Genzyme  employs 10,000 people worldwide and has a staff of 4,500 researchers and other workers in Massachusetts.  Founded in 1981, it is headquartered in Cambridge. 

The company is in the forefront of the biotechnology field, and “has been a leader in developing drugs for rare genetic disorders such as Gaucher and Fabry diseases, treatments that can cost up to $300,000 a year per patient,” reports the Globe.  The biotechnology area of life sciences represents a critical target market that Sanofi-Aventis sees as necessary for its continued growth and success.