Adaptimmune Therapeutics, a UK-based clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the use of T-cell therapy to treat cancer, is to expand its research and development operation into a new purpose-built facility at Milton Park, Oxfordshire.
Construction of the 67,000ft2 (6,224.5m2)‘Enterprise Zone’ building is already underway following a groundbreaking ceremony. The flagship facility will provide laboratory space with associated offices, meeting rooms and a café area to accommodate around 200 research and development specialists.
The new building is designed to support Adaptimmune’s growing research and development operation and is scheduled to be opened in late 2016.
The company has signed a 25-year lease on the property with developer MEPC, which owns Milton Park, one of Europe’s largest business parks accommodating 7,500 people and 250 organisations.
'We are delighted to be working closely with MEPC on this exciting new building, which will provide best-in-class laboratories to support the expansion of our R&D team and enable continuing progress with our research programmes,' said James Noble, Chief Executive of Adaptimmune.
'We started up Adaptimmune as three people on Milton Park in 2008 to research into engineered T-cell receptors to fight cancer, and we now have more than 150 staff across the world working out of our UK and US facilities. They are contributing substantial scientific, development and corporate expertise to progress our preclinical and clinical programmes and accelerate the development of our internal pipeline. All share a common aim of wanting to bring breakthrough treatments to cancer patients.'
Adaptimmune launched its US operation in 2011 after a long-standing research collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania.