ANDOVER, Mass. /Massachusetts Newswire/ — Governor Deval Patrick today celebrated the grand opening of Navidea Biopharmaceuticals’ new business and commercialization facility in Andover. Navidea is a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on precision diagnostic radiopharmaceuticals, and the event served as a part of a series of Massachusetts life sciences growth announcements taking place in the days prior to the BIO International Convention, which opens June 18 at the Massachusetts Convention & Exhibition Center in Boston.
“Massachusetts leads the world in life sciences thanks to our growth strategy of investing in education, innovation and infrastructure,” said Governor Patrick. “We welcome Navidea Biopharmaceuticals, and we look forward to working with them to create jobs and opportunities in the Commonwealth.”
The new facility, located in the New England Business Center in Andover, will serve as the business development office and the commercialization center for the commercial launch of the Company’s lead radiopharmaceutical product, Lymphoseek®, anticipated later this year. Lymphoseek is a proprietary lymph node targeting agent intended for use in intraoperative lymphatic mapping (ILM) procedures conducted by oncology surgeons. Navidea currently has 12 employees and consultants in the Andover office with room for further expansion.
“In establishing our business development and commercialization center, Massachusetts provides an ideal environment to support our expanding business and portfolio — including world-class biopharmaceutical organizations and infrastructure, and access to leading academic, medical and industry centers,” said Mark Pykett, Navidea President and CEO. “This is an important step of expanding our business reach, and we look forward to many years of benefitting from the region’s outstanding assets and being true partners to the State and our industry and academic neighbors.”
The BIO International Convention will provide Governor Patrick, state and industry leaders with an opportunity to showcase Massachusetts as a global leader in the life sciences industry, and the preeminent place for life sciences companies to invest in and expand.
In 2008, Governor Patrick signed a 10-year, $1 billion investment package to strengthen the state’s global leadership in the life sciences. The initiative melds all of the state’s key resources in order to spur research, investment, innovation and commercialization. Now, the life sciences industry in Massachusetts is thriving with more than 52 percent job growth since 2001 and more than 80,000 employees working in the life sciences.
“Welcoming Navidea to the Bay State speaks to the value we provide our nation’s biopharmaceutical industry as a center for innovation in science and technology,” said Dr. Susan Windham-Bannister, President and CEO of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center. “Navidea’s presence in Massachusetts will contribute to our economy, as well as strengthen our life sciences supercluster. I am confident that the team at Navidea will find all of the resources and partners they need to grow in Massachusetts.”
“We are pleased to welcome Navidea Biopharmaceuticals to Massachusetts as they work toward commercializing an important innovative technology with the potential to help oncology surgeons more effectively and accurately diagnose cancer,” said Bob Coughlin, President and CEO of MassBio. “We look forward to supporting Navidea in its ongoing endeavors in the development of important new pathways to diagnose critical diseases and forge collaborations with other leading companies and innovation centers in Massachusetts.”
”Adding innovative companies like Navidea to Massachusetts is a critical part of ensuring the continued economic vitality of the state,” said Susan Houston, Executive Director of Massachusetts Alliance for Economic Development . “With the tremendous connections our state provides to growing companies, I am confident Massachussetts and Navidea will both benefit from a strong and lasting partnership.”
Since 2008, the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center has invested more than $300 million in state resources, leveraging more than $938 million in outside investment and creating thousands of jobs. For every $1 of taxpayer money invested by the center, Massachusetts attracts more than $3 in additional outside investment to create a public-private investment fund of more than $1 billion for the state’s life sciences supercluster.
About Lymphoseek
Lymphoseek is a proprietary radioactive diagnostic tracing agent being developed for use in connection with gamma detection devices in pre-operative lymphoscintigraphy imaging and a surgical procedure known as Intraoperative Lymphatic Mapping. Lymphoseek works by binding to a specific receptor found on the surface of dendritic cells and macrophages, which reside in high concentration in lymph nodes. This receptor-targeted property of Lymphoseek enables it to attach to and remain within lymph nodes.
Two Phase 3 multi-center clinical trials for Lymphoseek in subjects with breast cancer or melanoma have concluded (NEO3-05 and NEO3-09; www.clinicaltrials.gov trial registration numbers NCT00671918 and NCT01106040, respectively). A third Phase 3 clinical study to evaluate the efficacy of Lymphoseek as a sentinel lymph node tracing agent in subjects with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma is currently ongoing (NEO3-06; www.clinicaltrials.gov trial registration number NCT00911326).
About Navidea Biopharmaceuticals, Inc.
Navidea Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. (NYSE Amex: NAVB) is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of precision diagnostics and radiopharmaceutical agents. Navidea is actively developing three radiopharmaceutical agent platforms – Lymphoseek®, AZD4694 and RIGScanTM – to help identify the sites and pathways of undetected disease and enable better diagnostic accuracy, clinical decision-making and ultimately patient care. Navidea’s strategy is to deliver superior growth and shareholder return by bringing to market novel radiopharmaceutical agents and advancing the Company’s pipeline through selective acquisitions, global partnering and commercialization efforts. For more information, please visit www.navidea.com.
