Bayer Launches a Cancer Research Site in Kendall Square in Cambridge

German-based pharmaceutical giant, Bayer AG, has been undergoing a major corporate transformation, internationally. Worldwide, the company will terminate a total of 12,000 jobs from across its global operations, including IT, Logistics, manufacturing, and support roles.

That said, at the same time, Bayer plans to expand and open a new cancer R&D facility in Cambridge, Massachusetts, adding jobs in the area. The company will pay the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) $100 million for a 12-year contract of approximately 62,100 square feet of office and lab space in a new construction in Kendall Square, which has lately become a center for pharmaceutical firms from all around the world.

In addition, according to Bayer executives, the company will spend a total of about $200 million, including the expense of building laboratories, acquiring R&D facilities, as well as staff wages & benefits.

From the current 20 employees in Cambridge, Bayer plans to add 75 new staff to the new facility when it opens in 2021 and double the numbers the following year. Half the workforce will be researchers working to create targeted cancer therapies, whereas the rest will be a variety, including data scientists.

According to Joerg Moeller, Executive Vice President and Head of Global Research and Development for Bayer, this significant Cambridge expansion is part of Bayer’s strategy to move most of its R&D efforts outside of Germany.

“I was first in Boston in ’89, and at that time, Cambridge looked very different,” Moeller told The Boston Globe. “If you look at it now, it is basically, in my view, together with the San Francisco area, probably [one of] the two preeminent innovation hot spots on this planet.”

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