The following are excerpts from a story in Banker & Tradesman that originally published on September 29, 2024:
“A lot of the technologies and therapies that are manufactured in North Carolina are more ready for commercial consumption,” said Ben Bradford, head of external affairs at industry trade group MassBio. “What Massachusetts succeeds at is these advanced therapies, cell and gene therapy and RNA technologies. They’re not at their infancy, but they’re far behind what small molecule and less complex biologics manufacturing is. What we would say is that the hard stuff is in Massachusetts.”
MassBio leaders aren’t pushing the panic button yet over the lost jobs. In fact, Bradford noted the biomanufacturing sector in Massachusetts gained more than 200 jobs in the first three months of this year – nearly erasing the small job loss seen in 2023. Further, he sees it as a waiting game for when the biomanufacturing sector here truly enters a boom cycle, as some of the therapies in the research and development phase in Greater Boston are more complex than those currently being manufactured in other states.
“As these challenging therapies become more prevalent, and they make up a great percentage in our pipeline, we’ll continue to see more that manufacturing happening here,” Bradford said.
But it’s not just a case of wait-and-see. MassBio’s industry snapshot notes the potential for the life science industry to significantly expand its biomanufacturing presence in Massachusetts hinges on a mix of the state’s “leadership in advanced modalities” along with friendly state policy and potential federal resources.
At the state level, that means approving Gov. Maura Healey’s $1 billion, 10-year reauthorization of the Life Sciences Initiative. The plan includes a mix of bond dollars for infrastructure and nonprofits, tax incentives tied to job creation and flexible funding that Bradford hopes would go toward early-stage companies working on new innovations. Moving forward on the measure requires convening a special session at the State House, as legislators failed to pass an economic bill during the last legislative session.
“This would be a tremendous tool – a billion dollars over 10 years – to really take what we see as an opportunity and turn it into reality here in Massachusetts,” Bradford said.