French pharma company moves HQ from NJ

Ipsen SA, a French biopharmaceutical company, has moved its U.S. headquarters from Basking Ridge to Cambridge, Mass., and will add 250 jobs.Ipsen SA, a French biopharmaceutical company, has moved its U.S. headquarters from Basking Ridge to Cambridge, Mass., and will add 250 jobs.

The company already has a research and development facility in Cambridge, and plans to expand it.

Massachusetts offered the company $1.2 million in tax incentives in exchange for adding 250 more state employees over 10 years. The jobs will be a combination of new hires and Ipsen employees who choose to relocate from New Jersey. Ipsen will, however, keep its core services in New Jersey, according to a statement.

Debbie Hart, president of BioNJ, a state trade group advocating for life sciences companies, blamed the move, in part, on the proposed 3 percent tax hike on New Jersey businesses. If passed, it would tie New Jersey with Iowa for the highest corporate tax rate in the U.S.

“I have been working in support of our state‘s economic growth for a long time and I am not one to overreact,” Hart said in a prepared statement. “But I have also never been more concerned.”