Loxo deal highlights potential of biotech for Conn.
By Paul Schott
STAMFORD — Six years ago, a biotech firm planning to develop genetically focused cancer treatments launched downtown.
That firm is now worth several billion dollars and has put its first product on the market.
The rise of Loxo Oncology — which has agreed to be acquired for about $ 8 billion by pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly & Co., after recently gaining U. S. Food and Drug Administration approval for its Vitrakvi drug — reflects the growing prominence of the biotech sector in southwestern Connecticut. The area’s central location and public subsidies have attracted other lifesciences startups, but long- term expansion could hinge on sustained fiscal and operational support for the industry.
“Any success of a Connecticut- based company does a lot to promote the state’s robust biotech sector,” said Paul Pescatello, executive director and senior counsel for the Connecticut Business & Industry Association’s Connecticut Bioscience Growth Council. “We have to make sure we take advantage of that momentum.”
Promising industry
About half of Loxo’s approximately 125 employees are based at its offices at 281 Tresser Blvd. It also maintains offices in South San Francisco, Calif., and a laboratory in Boulder, Colo.
“We’re able to recruit and attract people on both coasts and in the middle,” Loxo founder and CEO Josh Bilenker, a Stamford resident, said in a recent interview. “One of the hardest things we encounter is just hiring great people to take us to the next level. It’s nice to have a footprint in these different cities because it lets us talk to more types of candidates.”
Loxo operates within a couple of blocks of Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, and Cara Therapeutics, which is developing treatments for chronic and acute pain and the itch condition pruritus.
One mile south, genomic testing firm Sema4 opened its main offices at 333 Ludlow St., in the fall of 2017. It moved from its original home at the Mount Sinai Health System campus in Manhattan.
Sema4 settled on Stamford as its new home city because it was looking for space for its growing operations that it could