Biotech entrepreneur Greg Verdine scores a victory after leasing big office in Watertown

August 10, 2026 | Boston Globe

When biotech entrepreneur Greg Verdine leased roughly half of a new lab building at 66 Galen St. in Watertown Square two years ago, he was doing something almost no one else in his field was doing: adding space.

Unfortunately for the industry, that dry spell continues, with empty labs all around.

But Verdine feels vindicated about his bucking of the trend, by signing that 120,000-square-foot lease in 2024. He says today that he scored a big win with building owners Davis Companies and Boston Development Group. He points to the fact one of his companies, LifeMine Therapeutics, announced last week it had raised an additional $263 million in equity funding.

LifeMine has developed a radically new drug for organ transplants, one that avoids the kidney damage caused by the drugs in use over the past three decades. Two of Verdine's other startups, VidaVinci and DoveTree, are also in the building.

Verdine estimates around 70 people work in the building at one of the three startups today, including LifeMine's new chief commercial officer Yves Zinggeler (recruited from Vertex Pharmaceuticals), leaving plenty of room for future growth.

"I'm a big believer that real estate can be transformative," said Verdine, a chemical biologist. "This was intended to be transformative for Watertown Square. It can also be transformative for [our] companies."

The building offers floor-to-ceiling glass windows with Charles River views, along with a gym, restaurant, and parking. Verdine said he believes employees are happier to work in a beautiful building, and it can have a strong impression on potential investors. "For us," Verdine said, "it has been a good luck charm."

Verdine has been behind the launch of a long line of biotechs over the years, most with the intent of finding new approaches to treating otherwise untreatable conditions - or, as he puts it, drugging the "undruggable." They include Wave Life Sciences, which announced promising data for an obesity treatment last December, and cancer drug maker Parabilis Medicines (formerly FogPharma), which raised $670 million in its June IPO, a new record for a VC-backed biotech.

Verdine often gets asked how he balances all of his various ventures. The key, he said, is picking the right executives to take over, as he did with Parabilis chief executive Mathai Mammen, formerly at Johnson & Johnson. Most of Verdine's time now is focused on his three startups at 66 Galen.

"I had to learn to reprogram myself from an academician to someone running a biotech company," Verdine said, and then added, half-jokingly: "[Now] I'm learning how to transition from control freak to judicious delegator . . . in my advanced years."

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