Pharmaceutical Business review

GSK to shut Sirtris Pharma’s Cambridge office

The firm is mulling to relocate some of the 60 staffers currently working at the site in Cambridge to Philadelphia office.

GlaxoSmithKline’s spokesperson Melinda Stubbee was quoted by Boston Business Journal as saying that the research at Sirtris exploring the biology of sirtuins now requires the resource and expertise available from the firm’s broader drug discovery organization.

"To provide better access to our existing chemistry, biology and pharmacology teams, GSK will be fully integrating Sirtris into our R&D organization and moving it from Cambridge, Massachusetts to our Upper Providence site in Pennsylvania," Stubbee added.

GSK acquired Sirtis Pharma for $720m in 2008, and dropped its main drug candidate, a potential cancer drug based on resveratrol – a compound found in red wine, in 2010.