British biotech CellCentric is settling into a new office in Boston, part of the company’s expansion into the U.S. as multiple myeloma asset inobrodib progresses to late-stage clinical development.
“Boston’s status as a global hub for biotechnology and pharmaceutical innovation makes it the ideal location to further advance inobrodib’s development,” CellCentric Chief Development Officer Andy Fergus said in an April 2 release. The second office will be a “key additional hub for our international operations as we convene expertise from across the globe to address an unmet need in the multiple myeloma community.”
The expansion has been planned since the start of the year, a CellCentric spokesperson told Fierce Biotech in an email. The biotech also has offices in Cambridge and Manchester in the U.K.
The U.S. hub will lead inobrodib’s accelerated approval and phase 3 studies, the spokesperson added, and CellCentric will take advantage of the East Coast’s “strong pool of talent” to bolster the biotech’s team.
“We are actively recruiting people with later stage multiple myeloma drug development experience,” the spokesperson said, and “we have new joiners covering regulatory, clinical data management and statistics, and general program management.”
CellCentric also plans to hire a new chief business officer and a chief financial officer based in the U.S., the spokesperson added. The company has been building its executive team recently, with Fergus joining in September 2024 and Chief Strategy Officer Naseer Qayum coming aboard in January 2025.
The biotech’s lead asset inobrodib is an oral small molecule that targets p300 and CREB-binding protein, which are both transcriptional regulators that have been linked to cancer.
In addition to multiple myeloma, CellCentric is also pursuing inobrodib in acute myeloid leukemia, lymphomas and solid tumors, according to the company’s website.
Inobrodib received an orphan drug designation in multiple myeloma from the FDA in June 2023. CellCentric currently has phase 1/2 trials evaluating the drug candidate in blood cancers, including multiple myeloma, and in advanced solid tumors.
CellCentric’s expansion across the pond comes as scientific research and federal health infrastructure in the U.S. are increasingly targeted by the Trump administration. Despite these shake-ups, a presence in the U.S. is still important for CellCentric, the spokesperson said, as the country is home to the company’s primary clinical and commercial market.