Collegium Pharmaceutical Moves HQ to Boston in Bid for Biotech Talent

A suburban drugmaker moves downtown

Collegium Pharmaceutical is moving its corporate headquarters out of Stoughton, a suburb south of Boston, and into One Lincoln, a tower in Boston's Financial District. The company plans to move in during the first quarter of 202713. According to landlord DivcoWest, the lease covers 40,288 square feet across the 11th and 12th floors of the 36-story, 1.1-million-square-foot building, which was redeveloped in 202514. The Boston Globe reports that Collegium will be the refurbished tower's first biotech tenant12.

The company currently occupies 100 Technology Center Drive in Stoughton. It signed a lease of about 51,000 square feet in 2018 at that office and lab building, which is owned by Braintree-based Campanelli11. Not every worker will move downtown. The Globe reports that close to 100 of Collegium's 475 employees will be based at One Lincoln, and CEO Vikram Karnani expects that number to grow16.

On the surface this is a commercial real estate deal. The more telling part is what it says about how Collegium sees itself, and how it wants Boston's life sciences community to see it.

Karnani's rationale: talent and visibility

The official announcement focused on corporate momentum. Karnani said the company has changed a great deal in recent years and that the move shows confidence in its direction13. He also described it as a renewed commitment to Massachusetts, where Collegium was founded and where it intends to keep investing15.

In his interview with the Globe, Karnani was more direct about two goals. The first is hiring. He described Boston as an exceptional pool of biopharma and biotech talent and said the company needs access to it to meet its ambitions16. The second is profile. He said he has long thought of Collegium as one of the least-known companies relative to what it has achieved, and he sees the downtown address as a way to change that and make the company a fixture in the biotech ecosystem16.

The company's other recent activity supports the visibility goal. Collegium has signed partnerships with Boston Legacy FC and the Boston Triathlon, in part to raise awareness of the brand16. The partnership with the soccer club focuses on sensory-inclusive experiences for families13. Karnani has also said Collegium became an anchor supporter of MIT Solve's health pillar, and it awarded its first Collegium Prize to a rural children's mental health screening program3.

Biotech in name, specialty pharma in practice

Coverage of the move doesn't quite agree on what kind of company Collegium is. The Globe's headline calls it a biotech firm16. Bisnow describes it as a pharmaceutical company11. Company-profile services still list it as a specialty pharmaceutical business focused on pain1718.

The Globe itself spells out the difference. It notes that most of Collegium's revenue comes from drugs and technology it bought, not from discovery work in its own labs as at a traditional biotech16. The largest recent example is the $650 million purchase in May of the ADHD drug Azstarys16. On its latest earnings call, the company described itself as a biopharmaceutical company built on formulation and delivery innovation in central nervous system and pain conditions, with six marketed medicines.

That difference matters for how to read the move. Many companies pay Boston and Cambridge prices to be close to academic labs, venture investors and early-stage science. Collegium's need is different. It wants people who can run commercial operations, close business development deals, handle medical affairs and integrate acquired drugs. In this reading, the downtown office is less about doing research and more about being near the dealmakers, executives and experienced commercial staff that the Boston cluster also produces. The new space is also smaller than the Stoughton building, which includes labs, and that fits a company whose headquarters is mainly a corporate and commercial base1114.

The business behind the move

Collegium's financial results make the move look affordable. In the second quarter of 2026, total net product revenue was $199.9 million, up 6% from a year earlier, and adjusted EBITDA rose 8% to $113.8 million4. Jornay PM, its main ADHD drug, brought in $46.1 million, up 41% year over year4.

The pain business is weaker. Revenue from the Nucynta franchise fell 24% to $35.2 million because of pricing pressure tied to generics4. Acquisition costs for Azstarys pushed the company to a GAAP net loss of $15.1 million in the quarter, compared with net income of $12 million a year earlier4. Even so, management raised its full-year product revenue guidance to $825 million to $855 million. It now expects $65 million to $75 million in sales from Azstarys, while keeping its Jornay PM forecast at $190 million to $200 million4.

The company has also expanded its sales operation to support the ADHD portfolio. The sales force grew from about 180 to about 190 representatives, and the number of targeted prescribers rose from about 21,000 to about 27,000. Net debt stood at about 2.1 times adjusted EBITDA at the end of the quarter4. Investing.com put the company's market value at about $1.17 billion when the move was announced13.

Put together, the numbers show the shift Karnani has been leading. The company is reducing its dependence on a pain business that still produces cash but is under pressure, and building up an ADHD franchise that is growing. The Boston headquarters is a public sign of that change.

The Horizon playbook

Karnani's background suggests where Collegium may go next. Before joining Collegium in November 2024, he ran global commercial operations and medical affairs for Amgen's rare disease portfolio1. Before that, he spent years at Horizon Therapeutics. The Globe reports that he helped grow Horizon from about 200 employees and $300 million in revenue into a company with more than 2,000 employees and $4 billion in revenue before Amgen bought it in 202316. He has said that Collegium in 2024 looked to him like Horizon did in 201416.

That comparison stands out because Horizon grew mainly by acquiring drugs, rare disease drugs in particular. Karnani has said he is looking at expanding into new therapeutic areas such as rare diseases16. On the earnings call, he said the company's ideal acquisition targets are drugs with peak net sales of $300 million to $500 million, long patent protection and mainly U.S. revenue. He named rare disease as an area where his management team has deep experience. He also joined the board of Dyne Therapeutics in December 20255.

If Collegium pursues that strategy, a Boston headquarters gives it two practical advantages. It puts the company closer to the many small and mid-sized biotechs that own the kind of late-stage or approved assets it wants to buy. It also makes it easier to recruit rare disease commercial specialists, many of whom already work in the city.

Part of a wider real estate trend

The real estate side of the story points the same way. Justin Dziama of Avison Young, who represented Collegium, called the move part of a wider trend in Greater Boston. He said changing market conditions are letting companies upgrade their workplaces, make offices easier for employees to reach and build a stronger presence in the city1214. Newmark's Gil Dailey, who represented DivcoWest, said the lease shows demand for well-located, highly amenitized office space14. Bisnow notes that several other companies have moved from the suburbs into Boston in recent years11.

The brokers' phrase "market conditions" mostly means a softer office and lab market, which gives tenants room to negotiate better buildings. The sources do not disclose rent or other lease terms, so it is impossible to say how good a deal Collegium got. Still, it is notable that a commercial-stage drug company is choosing a refurbished Financial District office tower instead of lab space in Cambridge or the Seaport.

The Globe placed the move in a broader political context. In the same column, it reported concerns from business leaders that Massachusetts is losing young workers to high housing costs and that job growth has stalled compared with pre-pandemic levels16. A publicly traded company moving its headquarters into Boston is the kind of news state officials want to see more of.

What to watch

The move is mostly symbolic now, but it says a lot. Collegium is rebranding as a growth-oriented, acquisitive CNS and rare disease company rather than a suburban pain specialist. Whether that works will depend less on the new office than on whether Karnani can repeat what he did at Horizon: buy the right drugs at the right prices, integrate them, and grow them. The office gives the company access to more talent and more visibility in the Boston biotech community. The results will show up in its next acquisitions.