Navidea Biopharmaceuticals, a Dublin, Ohio-based specialty biopharmaceutical company focused on precision diagnostic radiopharmaceuticals, has opened its new business and commercialization facility in Andover, Mass.

Navidea’s new facility, located in the New England Business Center, will serve as the business development office and the commercialization center for the commercial launch of the company’s lead radiopharmaceutical product, Lymphoseek, anticipated later this year. Lymphoseek is a proprietary lymph node targeting agent intended for use in intraoperative lymphatic mapping (ILM) procedures conducted by oncology surgeons.

“In establishing our business development and commercialization center, Massachusetts provides an ideal environment to support our expanding business and portfolio —including world-class biopharmaceutical organizations and infrastructure, and access to leading academic, medical and industry centers,” said Mark Pykett, president and CEO of Navidea. “This is an important step of expanding our business reach, and we look forward to many years of benefiting from the region’s outstanding assets and being true partners to the state and our industry and academic neighbors.”

“We are pleased to welcome Navidea Biopharmaceuticals to Massachusetts as they work toward commercializing an important innovative technology with the potential to help oncology surgeons more effectively and accurately diagnose cancer,” said Bob Coughlin, president and CEO of MassBio. “We look forward to supporting Navidea in its ongoing endeavors in the development of important new pathways to diagnose critical diseases and forge collaborations with other leading companies and innovation centers in Massachusetts.”

Susan Houston, executive director of Massachusetts Alliance for Economic Development, added “Adding innovative companies like Navidea to Massachusetts is a critical part of ensuring the continued economic vitality of the state. With the tremendous connections our state provides to growing companies, I am confident Massachusetts and Navidea will both benefit from a strong and lasting partnership.”