GSK Seeks to Sell Part of UK R&D Site for Proposed Campus for Start-ups

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is seeking to sell 33 acres of land from its R&D campus in Stevenage, UK to a private developer for a proposed life-science campus for biotechnology and early-stage life science companies as part of a plan envisioned by GSK and the UK and local governments.

GSK has started the process of seeking a development partner to transform land within its existing 92-acre R&D site in Stevenage, UK into the life-sciences campus. The vision for the new campus has been developed in partnership with the following: the Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst (SBC), a cell and gene-therapy hub previously formed in collaboration with GSK, the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Innovate UK (the UK government’s innovation agency) and Wellcome (a global charitable foundation); the UK government; the Stevenage Borough Council, and the Local Enterprise Partnership, a partnership between local authorities and businesses to stimulate economic growth. It would build on the existing presence of GSK, SBC, and the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult (CGT Catapult), a center of excellence funded by Innovate UK.

GSK is looking to sell the 33 acres of land to a private sector developer with the aim of the private developer to subsequently invest up to £400 million ($547 million) to build the new campus and potentially create up to 5,000 jobs over the next five to ten years (as reported on July 16, 2021). The company says it expects to select a development partner later this year (2021), with a view for work to begin on master planning for the new campus in 2022. The proposed new campus would have 100,000 square meters of new floorspace for commercial life-sciences R&D and would be next to GSK’s existing site at Stevenage. GSK’s existing R&D operations at Stevenage are un-affected by the development.

If successful, GSK says the new campus could attract several research organizations to Stevenage. The CGT Catapult and SBC are both already on the site and have attracted a number of start-ups.

Source: GlaxoSmithKline

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