Roche, the Swiss pharmaceutical company, will open up a research center in New York City, the New York Times reported. The firm signed an 11-year lease to take space inside the Alexandria Center for Life Sciences, at 450 East 29th Street.
New York and New Jersey competed to host the pharmaceutical giant after it announced in June that it would shutter its Nutley, N.J. campus where Valium was first developed. Roche chose New York due to its proximity to leading academic medical facilities. However, in compromise, Roche will keep 50 managerial positions in New Jersey.
The company is slated to formally announce its Manhattan location today.
The center will be one for translational clinical research, which will serve to connect basic research and clinical use through early clinical trials. Roche is closing its New Jersey campus in a cost-cutting effort that includes the elimination of roughly 1,000 jobs.
Roche expects to begin occupying the space at the end of next year. [NYT]