PUBLICATION: BOSTON BUSINESS JOURNAL
The life sciences giant Sanofi is now working from one of its two towers at developer DivcoWest’s mixed-use Cambridge Crossing campus, with the other building expected to begin welcoming in scientists as soon as next month.
The move into 450 Water St., which took place in late March, is more than just a new address for Sanofi (Nasdaq: SNY), one of the state’s largest life sciences employers. Executives see it as the start of a consolidation of the sprawling company’s identity, especially locally.
Sanofi, as it exists today in Massachusetts, is an amalgamation of several forebears, most notably Genzyme, the locally based biotech stalwart that was acquired by France-based Sanofi for $20 billion in 2011. The company kicked off a global rebranding in February meant to unite all of its brands under the name Sanofi, subsuming offshoots like Sanofi Genzyme.
“This is the physical manifestation of that, where everything comes together, rather than it being fragmented,” said Bill Sibold, president of Sanofi North America and the company’s executive vice president of specialty care.
The new 915,000-square-foot campus at 350 and 450 Water St. — in the sprawling development at the edges of Boston, Somerville and Cambridge — will bring together about 2,500 Sanofi employees from nine sites around Greater Boston.
“By putting it all together, it actually was an opportunity to not only improve the work, and being in a location where we can engage with the ecosystem, but also to have a presence that is really commensurate with the size of the organization,” Sibold said… .