MassBio 2023 Industry Snapshot Shows Significant Employment Growth in Research and Development Across the Commonwealth
SEP 06, 2023
Massachusetts R&D job growth up
8.5%, biomanufacturing climbs 6.3%
CAMBRIDGE (September
6, 2023) – MassBio today released its 2023
Industry Snapshot, which shows significant job growth across the
life sciences industry with Massachusetts outpacing nearly all competitor
states for both research and development and biomanufacturing jobs added. At
the close of 2022, Massachusetts employed nearly 114,000 people in the
biopharma industry.
“The data from this year’s Snapshot
clearly shows we live and work in a resilient and industry-leading ecosystem
that continues to play an outsized role in addressing the world’s unmet medical
needs, but also one that will require ongoing public-private partnerships to
thrive and remain competitive,” said MassBio CEO and President Kendalle Burlin
O’Connell. “Massachusetts is slow to enter an economic slow-down and bounces
back quickly. Even amidst challenging times for biotech companies, we still saw
our industry’s workforce expand by nearly 7%. While we all know biotech
experienced a period of cooling after a red hot few years, our workforce
growth, lab space expansion, large share of overall national VC investments,
and strong government relationships make me hopeful for a strong 2024 and
beyond.”
The biopharma research and development
workforce in Massachusetts experienced year-over-year growth of 8.5%, outpacing
California and Pennsylvania (6.8%) as well as New Jersey (1.9%). In the
biomanufacturing space, employment in Massachusetts rose 6.3%, a higher rate
than competitor states like New Jersey (5.8%), Maryland (4.6%) and North
Carolina (1.8%).
Massachusetts-based companies received
$3.7 billion in venture capital funding in the first half of 2023, a decrease
from the same time last year, but the highest first-half total of any year
outside 2020-2022, years which set records fueled by pandemic-inspired
investing. Overall, biopharma companies headquartered in Massachusetts received
32% of all venture capital dollars invested in the industry, up six percent
from the first half of 2022.
The Commonwealth also saw an influx of
VC spending in communities outside of Cambridge. More than half of total VC
spending (55%) went to companies outside of the Cambridge biotech hub, with
clusters in Boston, Waltham, and Watertown leading the way.
Numbers don’t tell the full story for
Massachusetts. When it comes to lab space, pandemic-era development has created
an inventory that now more than meets demand, bringing additional flexibility
to lessees in more locations around the Commonwealth. The industry now has a
total inventory of 61.9 million square feet of lab space in Massachusetts, with
pipeline projections now significantly smaller in the coming year (between 14
and 17 million square feet). Eleven Massachusetts headquartered companies have
been acquired this year for a disclosed total of $10.47 billion (vs. $4.47
billion over the same time last year), a positive signal given the absence of
any Massachusetts IPOs so far in 2023.
The Snapshot also illustrates that
Massachusetts continues to play a significant role in addressing some of the
world’s toughest unmet medical needs. While drug pipelines of
Massachusetts-headquartered companies make up 14.9% of the overall U.S. pipeline
(down slightly from last year), the state’s total drug development pipeline
reflects a scale that is nearly half of the total pipeline of China, a country
with 1.3 billion people.
With many Massachusetts-headquartered
companies not generating revenue, the state’s ecosystem acutely experiences
fluctuations in the investment environment. Furthermore, the state’s dependence
on the life sciences industry’s economic contributions leaves it vulnerable to
outsized impacts of federal policy changes, as well as competition from
low-cost states. That said, continued and targeted investment and support will
help enable Massachusetts to add new competencies to our ecosystem while
remaining a global leader in innovation and research and development.
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