Henri Termeer, the former CEO of Cambridge, MA-based Genzyme, has given $10 million to Massachusetts General Hospital to establish a new center for developing more personalized cancer drugs, according to a report in today’s Boston Globe.
The new Henri and Belinda Termeer Center for Targeted Therapies will initially focus on certain genetic forms of breast cancer, lung cancer, and leukemias, the Globe said. The center will have 25 employees and will be led by Jose Baselga, the chief of hematology-oncology at MGH.
“I hope this will help Massachusetts be recognized globally as the knowledge center in targeted medicines,” Termeer told the newspaper. “This is a global effort, but Massachusetts has the responsibility to lead, to use the talents and capabilities it has built over many years.”
Termeer stepped down from Genzyme this past spring, after the company agreed to be acquired by Paris-based Sanofi for more than $20 billion.
