The following is an excerpt from the Boston Business Journal published on August 25, 2026:
For the first time since the Life Sciences Initiative was passed in 2008, Massachusetts saw a year-over-year decline in its biopharma workforce. The state’s [biopharma] workforce contracted 3.1% in 2025, according to the MassBio 2026 Industry Snapshot, recording roughly 3,600 fewer jobs than in 2024.
MassBio said this first-time decline interrupted nearly two decades of growth for the industry, which saw the workforce increase roughly 109% since 2008.
The decline won’t come as too much of a surprise to those in and around the industry over the last few years.
M&A, VC and IPOs — the first half of 2026 was a veritable alphabet soup as deals, capital and exits returned to the sector.
“With all the good news we’ve seen so far this year, the hope is that Q1 of 2026 (workforce) numbers will be better than Q4 of 2025,” said Ben Bradford, head of external affairs at MassBio.
Read the full story in the Boston Business Journal.
