Johnson & Johnson’s Technology, Innovation and Janssen units have moved in together to a new R&D facility in San Francisco’s Bay Campus. The nearly 200,000-square-foot space will be home to up to 400 employees, more than doubling J&J’s presence in this R&D hot spot.
Employee efforts at the site will be geared toward Janssen’s key R&D priorities, including gene and RNA therapies, retinal and infectious diseases, and using AI and machine learning in drug development.
“Our new state-of-the-art science facility in the Bay Area will further strengthen our R&D capabilities and transform how we discover, develop and deliver innovative medicines faster and more efficiently,” James Merson, Ph.D., global therapeutic area head of infectious diseases at Janssen, said in a release.
J&J cited its California Innovation Center in Menlo Park as a success story for the company, responsible for “facilitat[ing] investments and collaborations to accelerate early-stage healthcare innovation with academic and industry partners in the Bay Area and greater California ecosystem since 2014.”
The new Bay Area site—which opened today—is intended to have a similar impact.
California’s Bay Area isn’t only the world’s tech capital: It’s also home to biotech pioneer Genentech and fresher startups that between them occupy more than 38 million square feet of lab space. That footprint is set to grow by a further 3.2 million square feet that is currently under construction—38% of which is already pre-leased, according to CBRE Research.