Worcester's LakePharma plans Mass. expansion

Courtesy Kelleher & Sadowsky LakePharma is located in this building in Worcester's Gateway Park.

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By Grant Welker

LakePharma, a biologics company with a laboratory in Worcester, has raised $30 million to open additional locations in Massachusetts and its home state of California.

LakePharma, which announced the funding Tuesday, was once seen as the potential anchor for a new biomanufacturing campus near the UMass Medical School but instead is looking elsewhere.

The company, which has a space in Worcester's Gateway Park, didn't say where it plans to expand.

LakePharma specializes in antibody and protein engineering, cell-line development and protein production. It was founded in 2009 and is based in the Silicon Valley city of Belmont, and has labs in nearby South San Francisco and Hayward.

Financing was led by equity investor Summit Partners, which manages more than $15 billion in capital, and included existing investor Ampersand Capital Partners, which manages more than $1 billion in private equity partnerships, according to the announcement of the funding.

The Worcester Business Development Corp. has been planning a 100,000-square-foot biotechnology building in an area surrounded by AbbVie, the Beechwood Hotel and UMass Medical School but is first trying to land an anchor tenant. The corporation said this summer that LakePharma was instead looking at other sites for expansion.