Ipsen has announced the opening of a new UK headquarters in London, with the site serving as one of the company’s three global hubs.
The Paddington facility is located within a life sciences community currently home to several other pharmaceutical and technology companies as well as Imperial College London.
With a ‘bench-to-bedside’ approach, the 300 employees based at Ipsen Paddington will include those working in research and development (R&D), alongside medical and commercial colleagues, covering UK and global roles.
The official launch involved David Loew, chief executive officer of Ipsen, and Ioana Parsons, general manager of Ipsen UK and Ireland, along with key stakeholders including Rosalind Campion, director of the Office for Life Sciences, and Dr Richard Torbett, chief executive of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry.
Loew said the move marked “a new chapter” for Ipsen, adding that the company’s presence in Paddington “further reinforces [its] continued commitment to the UK”.
Ipsen has more than 1,000 employees in the UK and Ireland, over 500 of whom are based at a manufacturing site in Wrexham, Wales.
“Along with our centre of R&D, and manufacturing excellence in Wrexham, the new hub will ensure we continue to deliver on our commitment to bringing innovative medicines to people living with high unmet medical needs,” he added.
Also commenting on the opening, Campion said: “The UK is home to a thriving life sciences industry. Companies like Ipsen [which] are highly committed to investing in the UK play a pivotal role in realising our ambitions for this sector.
“It was a pleasure to officially open Ipsen’s new UK site today, and to see [it] bolstering the growing life sciences community here in Paddington.”
The unveiling comes less than three weeks after Ipsen said it had entered into an agreement worth up to $900m to gain exclusive worldwide rights to develop and commercialise Sutro Biopharma’s preclinical antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) targeting solid tumours.
Sutro’s STRO-003, which will be the first ADC candidate to be added to Ipsen’s portfolio, targets a tumour antigen that is known to be overexpressed in many different cancer types, including solid tumours and haematological malignancies.