Kyowa Kirin, a specialty pharmaceutical business based in Japan with a global network of facilities specializing in life sciences and biotechnology, has opened a new, 80,000-square-foot headquarters in Princeton at 510 Carnegie Center to be the new site of its North American operations.
According to the Kyowa Kirin Group website, kyowakirin.com/index.html, the company’s mission is to improve “human health and well-being worldwide through innovative drug discovery and global commercialization, driven by state-of-the-art antibody technologies, in the core therapeutic areas of oncology, nephrology, central nervous system, and immunology.”
The new Princeton headquarters, which provide more than double the amount of conferencing and meeting space than its previous facilities in the state, will focus on pharmaceutical development, including “clinical development and operations, supply chain, and quality teams.”
“Bringing our teams into one shared location will enable us to work more collaboratively across the lifecycle as we focus on increasing our impact and work for patients and their families,” Kyowa Kirin North America President Steve Schaefer says in a quote. “We designed the space with employee input, with the goal of creating a space that would suit the needs of a dynamically changing and growing workforce.”
Kyowa Kirin has overseen research and development across Japan, the Asia Pacific, North America, and other international regions like Europe, the Middle East, and Africa — often shortened to its EMEA division — for more than 70 years, while encompassing 40 group companies within these areas.
A July press release states that Kyowa Kirin “has been steadily growing its market presence in North America since 2018, when it received approval from the U.S. Federal Drug Administration for the first of three first-in-class medicines it now markets in the US. North America is the company’s fastest-growing region in terms of revenue, contributing more than a quarter of Kyowa Kirin’s global revenues in 2022, up from 13% in 2019. During that same time, the company nearly doubled its number of North American employees to more than 600.”
Comparatively, “the new space will host over 300 employees — across various functions that support all phases of the product life cycle, including development, commercial, and corporate functions — combining teams that used to be split across two New Jersey locations into one space.”
This office environment also incorporates “collaborative, cutting-edge technologies” and shared workstations to support the future growth of the teams without the need for additional, assigned spaces, while employees are encouraged to follow a flexible hybrid schedule suitable to their own needs.
“From the start to finish, the design has been rooted in the Japanese idea of Wa, which is all about teams that work in sync or harmony. We want an environment that reflects those ideals and maximizes opportunities for each person to get involved and contribute to our success,” says Britt Byers, senior vice president of human resources for Kyowa Kirin North America. “Throughout this two-year project, we regularly engaged employees to get input on design options and workplace policies. We looked at this move as an opportunity to rethink all aspects of our workplace and spur positive changes.”
Biotech subsidiary BioWa, noted on the Kyowa Kirin website as the licensor of the company’s various technologies, first relocated to the Carnegie Center back in 2016. KKNA also has a research facility in La Jolla, California.
More information: kkna.kyowakirin.com.
Kyowa Kirin North America's new headquarters at 510 Carnegie Center.,
