Topping out ceremony for Abcam on the Biomedical Campus
Milestone event for life sciences firm at site of 100,000 sq ft new facility
Abcam has marked a key milestone in its development with a topping out ceremony at its global new headquarters on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus.
The new facility will mean the life sciences e-commerce innovator will relocate more than 450 staff to the new 100,000sq ft building late next year. The staff are currently based at three Cambridge sites, all on the Science Park.
The as-yet-unnamed building will feature a three-storey laboratory and a four-storey office, connected by an atrium. The location will house the firm’s new European hub right next to AstraZeneca and MRC-LMB, along with other organisations dedicated to world-class research and innovation.
Key functions at the new base will include both innovation and manufacturing, along with sales, marketing and logistics. Manufacturing will continue at Abcam’s other sites – the firm also has locations in the US, Japan, Hong Kong and China.
Alan Hirzel, CEO of Abcam, said: “We are making an investment in building our global HQ at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus because it’s important for us to be close to our local science and biomedical communities. Bringing the Abcam team together will improve our efficiency and innovation to better serve researchers and accelerate discovery in the life sciences. We look forward to bringing our enthusiastic team to this location in late 2018.”
Abcam was founded in 1998 by Jonathan Milner with co-founders Professor Tony Kouzarides and David Cleevely, with the idea of making it easier for research scientists to buy antibodies online.
The firm expanded with a series of acquisitions starting in 2011, and its portfolio now includes Oregon-based MitoSciences, Bristol-based Ascent Scientific, California/China-based Epitomics, plus US-based Firefly BioWorks and AxioMx.
From the production of antibodies – Dr Milner famously delivered initial batches to customers on the Science Park by bicycle – Abcam diversified into antibody-related products such as immunoassays, and then non-antibody related products such as biochemicals, cellular assays, and epigenetics kits.
Abcam sells to more than 100 countries and is listed on AIM.
