Philips' Research Boosting Plans Equal 3 Letters: MIT

The Dutch multinational is even moving its North American research headquarters near the university.

Chris Newmarker

Royal Philips N.V. has forged a five-year, $25 million alliance with MIT to further research in its core areas of healthcare and lighting solutions, the company and university announced this week.

The research alliance, announced Tuesday, includes Philips moving its North American research headquarters to the Kendall Square area north of MIT, in Cambridge, MA.

The headquarters are presently in Briarcliff Manor, NY. Local news site Lohud.com reported last year that Philips had informed the 125 employees at Briarcliff Manor that it was shutting the facility down and moving to Massachusetts. (A Philips spokesperson when reached said researchers based in Briarcliff have been offered the opportunity to relocate to Cambridge, while employees in other functions will remain in New York.)

Philips has not announced the exact location in Kendall Square yet. The Dutch multinational says it is choosing the area because of the new projects that will be supported by the MIT research alliance, as well as the concentration of startups and research labs.

"Kendall Square produced more IPOs in biotech last year than all of Silicon Valley, and I am excited that Philips will be further enhancing this innovation ecosystem," MIT Associate Provost Karen Gleason said in a news release.

The proximity of the company's new research headquarters to MIT, she said "will allow us to address grand challenges together."

Labs and incubators, in fact, have helped power Massachusetts' medtech industry, as Qmed/MPMN described in a recent story. For example, MIT professor Robert Langer, ScD, has performed a significant amount of work making chemical engineering relevant for the life sciences, helping to start 29 companies in the process. He has 1080 patents issued or pending.

A sizeable majority of the research funding, 70%, will support healthcare research versus lighting research at MIT. Healthcare projects that Philips is planning to focus on with MIT include clinical decision support; clinical informatics; interventional guidance, planning, and assessment; and medical ultrasound, photonics, and bioinformatics.

Philips actually has plans to split into two companies focused on HealthTech and Lighting Solutions. Philips says it currently intends to spin off its Lighting Solutions business in an initial public offering, though other options will be reviewed.

Chris Newmarker is senior editor of Qmed and MPMN. Follow him on Twitter at @newmarker.

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