Amicus Therapeutics, a growing biopharmaceutical company that focuses on rare and orphan diseases, is committing to Philadelphia in a big way.
Citing the city as a burgeoning hub for medical breakthroughs, Amicus will launch a new Global Research and Gene Therapy Center at uCitySquare.
About a dozen Amicus research employees already have moved into a temporary space in West Philadelphia. They will be joined by 200 new hires — biologists and chemists — when the company’s 75,000 square foot center opens in late 2019. The new facility will house the headquarters for the global Amicus science organization and the gene therapy leadership team. Amicus will retain its corporate headquarters in Cranbury, N.J.
“It’s a big deal for us, and I hope for Philadelphia as well,” said CEO John F. Crowley. Amicus will collaborate with top gene therapy researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and Penn Medicine, and seek additional partnerships with Drexel University and other regional institutions, he said. “For us Philadelphia is a terrific fit to make medicines for people who have rare developmental disorders.”
Crowley’s dramatic and unusual history in biotech was retold in the 2010 movie Extraordinary Measures, which starred Brandon Frasier and Harrison Ford.
