Last week, the global biotech community converged at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center for the 2025 BIO International Convention, and the message was unmistakable: Massachusetts isn’t just advancing today’s science, it’s setting the pace for what comes next.
From the bustling exhibit floor to the Massachusetts Pavilion, hosted by MassBio and the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, every panel, conversation, and partnership meeting reaffirmed the state’s foundational strengths and how to double down on them to maintain Massachusetts’ global edge.
Speaking on a MassBio panel with Thermo Fisher Scientific CEO and President Marc Casper, Governor Maura Healey summed it up: “We have everything we need here.” More than world-class institutions, Massachusetts boasts an ecosystem where startups, investors, researchers, and government collaborate with urgency. Casper agreed, crediting that same spirit of cohesion as one reason Thermo Fisher located a viral vector manufacturing site in Plainville.
Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll and incoming Takeda CEO Julie Kim, featured on another standout panel, reinforced the message of collective strength. Driscoll emphasized the Commonwealth’s commitment to being not only the best place to discover breakthroughs but also to make and deliver them, emphasizing the opportunity to expand biomanufacturing capabilities in Massachusetts. Julie Kim, who will soon lead one of the largest biopharma companies in the world from its U.S. headquarters in Massachusetts, highlighted the state’s diverse talent base, proximity to research hubs, and public-private alignment that continue to make it a magnet for long-term investment.
This cohesive scientific community-wide approach is the connective tissue of Massachusetts’s life sciences success. And it’s backed by action.
The Healey-Driscoll administration’s vision for the “Life Sciences Initiative 3.0” is already underway, thanks to strong legislative champions like Massachusetts Speaker of the House Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka, both honored by MassBio with the “Commonwealth Catalyst” Award at BIO.
“Life sciences is such a vital industry in Massachusetts, not just because of its economic power, but because of the hope it brings to patients and their families,” Spilka said. That hope is made real through sustained investment, bipartisan support, and a shared belief that scientific breakthroughs must benefit everyone. As Speaker Mariano affirmed, “Our economic success and our commitment to equity go hand-in-hand when we invest in the life sciences.”
The alignment between public policy and scientific ambition remains one of the most potent advantages that Massachusetts holds. Through LSI 3.0, the state has recommitted to biomanufacturing, workforce development, startup growth, and equitable opportunity steered through MLSC.
MLSC’s presence at BIO likewise sent a clear message: sustaining state leadership requires deliberate, inclusive action. They spotlighted programs like MassNextGen, which advances historically underrepresented founders, and the Tax Incentive Program. Governor Healey and MLSC recently announced nearly $30 million in tax incentive awards to create more than 1,500 new life sciences industry jobs and opened a follow-on $10 million competitive round to take advantage of the new $40 million statutory cap approved as part of the reauthorization of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Initiative last year.
Amid the optimism, real challenges to industry remain. As MassBio CEO & president Kendalle Burlin O’Connell and BIO CEO and president John F. Crowley wrote in The Boston Globe, “China has prioritized investment in biotechnology, increasing annual funding from $35 million a decade ago to $15 billion in 2023. The results speak for themselves: In 2023, China’s innovative drug assets represented 24 percent of the global biopharma pipeline, while American assets accounted for 40 percent (down from 47 percent). That’s a dramatic jump from 2013, when China’s contribution stood at just 2 percent.”
As federal headwinds add to the pressure, Massachusetts must respond with what it knows best: community, collaboration, and smart policy.
The most poignant reminder of why this work is so vital came during the final panel of the week, when Lee Greenwood shared the story of his daughter, Noa, one of the few children in the world receiving an investigational gene therapy for Canavan disease.
Noa’s entire journey from diagnosis to treatment is rooted in Massachusetts, similar to the journey of her life-enhancing therapy, developed by scientists at UMASS Chan. As Boston residents, the Greenwood family were able to take the T to Mass General for Noa’s first dose. Now, she is connecting, smiling, and defying expectations.
That moment moved the room. It reminded the convergence of global scientists, researchers, investors, and policymakers that behind scientific breakthroughs are real people and real families – and, in Noa’s case, a Commonwealth that is uniquely positioned to make the impossible possible.