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10 Hartford Business Journal • October 22, 2018 • www.HartfordBusiness.com By Matt Pilon mpilon@hartfordbusiness.com C onnecticut is going through its latest wave of pharmaceutical industry churn, with at least several hundred workers laid off or otherwise displaced at major employers. Drugmaker Alexion Pharmaceuti- cals Inc. this summer completed the relocation of its New Haven headquar- ters to Boston, cutting its Connecticut presence roughly in half. Meanwhile, Bristol-Myers Squibb is in the final stages of shuttering its Wallingford re- search and development facility, which three years ago had 900 employees. In addition, Pfizer laid off 100 employees at its Groton campus this year as it exited its neuroscience business. Connecticut has been through sev- eral biopharma downsizing waves this century, but it may not be all doom and gloom, according to Dr. Stephen Uden, who departed Alexion late last year as head of research. In his travels, Uden, who has worked around the globe for major big pharma companies including Wyeth and Pfizer, said he regularly runs into former col- leagues, and they all hold something in common — they're smart and often land on their feet. The challenge for Connecticut, which has invested hundreds of mil- lions of dollars in the last decade to build up an industry heavily courted by other major U.S. cities, is making sure those workers stay here. "It's easy to bemoan … they're los- ing all this talent … ," Uden said. " … But maybe it's actually a good thing because it's fostering the environment in which innovation can occur." Uden knows something about in- novation. Since he left Alexion he co-founded a new bioscience startup in Farmington, Rallybio, which has already raised $37 million in its quest to identify drug targets that will treat ultra-rare, dev- astating diseases. Rallybio's seven-member team, which is operating out of UConn Health's Technology Incubation Program facility, includes all former Alexion employees. It's the type of venture Department of Economic and Community Develop- ment Commissioner Catherine Smith would like to see more of in this state. She said it's hard to say for sure how many of the recently displaced scien- tists and other bioscience employees will land jobs in Connecticut, but she's optimistic it's a lot. "I think the majority will find work here," Smith said. "I can't prove that to you, it's a hard thing to measure." Smith pointed to a number of posi- tives that help offset the recent indus- try disruption, including state-subsi- dized hiring at Jackson Laboratory in Farmington and Sema4 in Branford and Stamford, and New Haven-based Arvinas's recent initial public offering. David Wurzer, chief investment officer of Connecticut Innovations, the state's quasi-public venture arm, noted that CI made $15.4 million in equity investments in bioscience companies last year. Wurzer shares Smith's overall opti- mism that the state can retain many recently displaced biopharma workers. "Our capacity to absorb a good piece of that wave does exist," Wurzer said. However, he added, drug discovery takes years, so Connecticut's invest- ments will take time to bear more fruit. Trending smaller The number of bioscience jobs in the state declined about 17 percent between 2001 and 2016, the Con- necticut Mirror reported last year, citing industry data compiled on its behalf. However, at the same time, the number of bioscience firms is grow- ing, which could signify what industry experts say is a new reality in the industry — large companies that used to do more of their R&D in-house are now outsourcing drug discovery to smaller, nimble companies. Is the state, as longtime Connecticut bioscience entrepreneur and booster Susan Froshauer puts it, sufficiently Rallybio's roster Here are Rallybio's seven employees and the titles they previously held while working at Alexion Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Zubin Bhagwagar — Vice president of external innovation Laura Ekas — Director of global pricing and reimbursement Jeffrey Fryer* — Vice president, chief tax officer Martin Mackay* — Executive vice president, head of research and development Dr. Stephen Uden* — Head of research Dr. Haren Vasavada — Head of new targets and therapeutics Dr. Eric Watsky — Vice president, global development team leader *Rallybio co-founders Absorbing the Wave CT's latest biopharma shakeup creates opportunities, casts uncertainty over industry's future Alexion scientists regroup: Three former high-ranking Alexion employees formed a new startup, Rallybio, as the drugmaker shook up its management and moved its headquarters to Boston. Rallybio's co-founders have since hired four more former Alexion colleagues. Rallybio's entire team is pictured here in the company's lab space at UConn Health's incubator facility. HBJ PHOTO | STEVE LASCHEVER