GlaxoSmithKline to close Sirtris unit in Cambridge
news article · 2013
LINK
SUMMARY
Reports GlaxoSmithKline's closure of Sirtris Pharmaceuticals' Cambridge, Massachusetts headquarters, five years after acquiring the company for $720 million; Sirtris's roughly 60 remaining staff were largely not retained, with a small group offered relocation to GSK's Upper Providence, Pennsylvania site, and Sirtris's sirtuin research folded into GSK's broader R&D organization. Independently corroborated by contemporaneous FierceBiotech coverage (reposted via Science.org's blog) and Boston Business Journal/inknowvation coverage, all dated 12 March 2013.
NOTES
Closes the financial-conflict/disconfirmation arc of the case’s first (resveratrol/Sirtris) phase: the company GSK paid $720 million for in 2008 was wound down within its own walls five years later, after its lead drug candidate’s trial was halted for a serious adverse event and its core mechanism was shown to be an assay artifact.