Eli Lilly announces Institute for Genetic Medicine and $700 million investment in Boston Seaport Site

Eli Lilly and Company yesterday announced the launch of the Lilly Institute for Genetic Medicine and an investment of approximately $700 million to establish a facility at a new site in the Boston Seaport. This investment – part of the company’s strategy to advance RNA-based therapeutics – builds on the 2020 acquisition and expansion of Prevail Therapeutics, a gene therapy pioneer based in New York City. Working together, researchers in both Boston and New York will leverage promising RNA and DNA-based technologies to develop therapies with the potential to treat or prevent diseases in a manner that is challenging or not possible with traditional medicines, Eli Lilly said in a statement.

Andrew C Adams, Vice President, Genetic Medicine, Lilly, and co-director of the Institute, said in the statement, “Lilly will focus on medicines acting at the nucleic acid level to advance an entirely new class that targets the root cause of diseases, an approach that is fundamentally different than medicines available today.”

Through the work of the Institute, Lilly intends to fuel the development of genetic medicines, which already account for more than 20 per cent of Lilly’s diabetes, immunology and central nervous system research portfolio. Within five years, Lilly projects the Boston site will grow from 120 to more than 250 research biologists, chemists, data scientists and other experts in genetic medicine, while the New York site will grow to include up to 200 scientists – all employed by Lilly, the statement further said.

The institute will be headquartered in 334,000 square feet of leased space in a 12-story building, developed and operated by Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc, in the Seaport district of Boston. The occupancy of the new site is scheduled for 2024, it added.

The site will also include a shared space – modelled after Lilly Gateway Labs in San Francisco – to support biotech start-ups in the Boston area. This space will provide dedicated and configurable lab and office space, access to Lilly scientists, and opportunities for collaboration. These companies are expected to create as many as 150 additional new jobs once the space is fully occupied, the statement concluded.