Vivan renews five-year lease at UK biotech hub White City Place

The London hub is home to life sciences companies including Novartis, Engitix and invoX Pharma

Vivan Therapeutics has signed a new five-year lease at White City Place, a biotech hub in London home to life sciences companies including Novartis and Engitix.

The lease renewal for the mixed-use office and laboratory space in the WestWorks building expands on the company’s previous investment in the site, including a custom outfit for large scale drug screening and the development of specialised robots for assay scoring.

Vivan is focused on using whole animal (fruit fly) disease modelling, machine learning and high throughput drug screening to identify new drug combinations for cancer patients.

The company’s Founder and Chief Executive, Laura Towart, said: “White City Place has been the perfect home for us over the last five years. Leveraging the local healthtech community has been invaluable in helping us grow and achieve our goals.”

“We are excited to continue our journey at White City Place for the next five years and look forward to furthering our research alongside other… biotech companies,” Towart added.

Based in West London and in close proximity to research institutions such as Imperial College, White City Place boasts over 110,000 sq ft of office and laboratory space designed to meet the evolving needs of biotech companies.

Synthace, Autolus and invoX Pharma are also among the six life sciences companies that have joined the campus over the past two years.

Claire Dawe, Head of Asset Management at Stanhope, which manages White City Place, said Vivan’s decision is a “testament to the collaborative community and state-of-the-art facilities” at the hub.