Lt. Governor Helps FORMA Open its New Headquarters in Watertown

FORMA Therapeutics opened its Watertown headquarters in December, but the cancer drug research firm celebrated its opening with a Friday afternoon party attended by Lt. Gov. Timothy Murray.

The opening of the 45,000-square-foot building next to the Watertown Mall on Arsenal Street, came days before then BIO International Convention, at the Massachusetts Convention and Exhibition Center, a major gathering of biotech and life science companies.

Firms like FORMA have helped make the state’s economy stable even in the tough economic times, Murray said.

“As the governor (Deval Patrick) likes to say, this is Massachusetts’ sweet spot – smart, talented people coming up with new ideas and new therapies, like what you are doing here at FORMA,” Murray said.

FORMA founder and CEO Steven Tregay said he is lucky to work with talented people at the facility in Watertown and a lab in Branford, Conn. He also had good timing.

“I became CEO the week the stock market crashed,” Tregay said. “Through adversity we did get the most amazing opportunity to build a company that couldn’t be built again.”

Tregay said FORMA is making not just small steps but large leaps in the fight against cancer. In 2011 the company was named one of the Fierce 15 by FierceBiotech as one of the most promising private biotech companies in the industry.

State Sen. Will Brownsberger also attended the open house event.

“I enjoy seeing this kind of innovative work happen, and see it in Watertown,” Brownsberger said. 

The Bay State had other good news from the biotech sector in recent weeks, with the opening of facilities of  and Thermo, and the announcement of two European companies moving to Massachusetts, said Angus McMcQuilken, vice president of communications for the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center in Waltham. Batavia Biosiences from the Netherlands is moving to Woburn and Xenetic Biosciences from the United Kingdom is moving to the Waltham/Lexington area.