Monday, June 16, 2008

Acceleron to grow staff, manufacturing in Cambridge

By Mass High Tech Staff

Acceleron Pharma Inc. reports that it will be increasing its staff size by nearly 40 percent, as well as doubling the size of its administrative, laboratory and manufacturing facilities.
 
Cambridge-based biopharmaceutical Acceleron says it is hiring staff across all business functions and will have around 120 to 125 employees by the end of 2008, up from the 85 it had at the beginning of the year. The company is also leasing an additional 37,500 square feet, in which Acceleron will build its second protein manufacturing facility, according to officials.

According to Steven Ertel, vice president of corporate development at Acceleron, the funding for the growth comes from a Series C financing last year and a major partnership deal earlier this year.

In October 2007, Acceleron completed a $31 million Series C round of financing, which started the plans for growth. “The process really kicked off at the end of 2007 when we committed to grow the company across multiple products,” Ertel said.

In February, Acceleron struck a pair of deals with pharmaceutical firm Celgene Corp. that could bring in nearly $1.9 billion in payments. The two life sciences firms will jointly develop and market Acceleron’s lead bone-forming protein, called ACE-011, now in Phase 1 clinical trials. Celgene agreed to pay an initial fee of $50 million to Acceleron and to make a $5 million equity investment in the privately held biotech.
 
Founded in 2003, Acceleron reports it employs 90 workers and has raised a total of $86 million in three rounds of venture capital financing. In addition to its treatments for bone loss, the biotech is developing preclinical proteins intended to increase muscle mass, control the growth of blood vessels and block the accumulation of fat.