Fujifilm opens office in biotech hub to develop research relationships

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Fujifilm Life Science Strategic Business Office will open a site in Cambridge, Massachusetts in an aim to further link up with the surrounding pharmaceutical and biotech community.

The opening of the Cambridge, Massachusetts office, near major academic and clinical research institutions, which Fujifilm has worked to establish relationships with in recent months, demonstrates its aim to tap into early stage biologic development.

Bruce Novich, scientific director and division president at corporate new business development at Fujifilm Holdings, said, “Over the past few years, Fujifilm has made significant investments in the life science business including sponsored research, licensing, business partnerships and acquisitions.”

In its dip into the area, Fujifilm Life Science teamed up with Harvard Medical School, through its Fujifilm Fellowship Fund, to support research into therapeutic innovation.

The company also established a relationship with Massachusetts Institute of Technology through its sponsorship of research at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research to fund studies in targeted nucleic acid medicine delivery using lipid nanoparticle technology.

Additionally, Lyndra Therapeutics a pharmaceutical company in the Cambridge area, saw an investment from Fujifilm to fund the company’s Series B Financing for Phase II clinical trials and the expansion of its Phase I pipeline.

“Our new location in Cambridge provides an ideal environment to foster collaborate and bring business and technology together,” said Novich.

Yutaka Yamaguchi, CEO of Fujifilm Irvine Scientific and the general manager of the new Cambridge office, explained that the primary goal is to connect, invest, and co-innovate in an aim to accelerate translational medicine, and improve patient care.