August 25, 2021 (CAMBRIDGE, MA) – The Massachusetts Biotechnology Council (MassBio®) today released its 2021 Industry Snapshot, which shows incredible growth across the life sciences industry and also reveals forthcoming opportunities and challenges. The report found that Massachusetts-headquartered biopharma companies raised $4.3 billion in venture capital (VC) funding in the first quarter of 2021, already nearing the industry’s peak of $5.8 billion in 2020. Additionally, the IPO market also remains strong, with 10 IPOs from Massachusetts-headquartered companies in the first half of 2021, raising a total of $2.1 billion – a rate on-pace with the 21 IPOs launched in 2020.
“Strong and continued investment in the life sciences allows biopharma companies to conduct game-changing research in an attempt to address patients’ greatest unmet medical needs,” said Kendalle Burlin O’Connell, President and COO, MassBio. “At the same time, this growth is creating amazing opportunities for our state’s economy and residents. But we’ve reached an inflection point in Massachusetts – we must focus on expanding Massachusetts’ biopharma footprint beyond Boston/Cambridge, developing new biomanufacturing facilities, and recruiting, retaining, and educating the next generation of skilled talent to ensure Massachusetts remains the best place in the world for the life sciences.”
These record-breaking funding rates are leading to growth in the real estate pipeline across Massachusetts: over the last year, Massachusetts added nearly five million square feet of lab space and is projecting an additional 20 million square feet in lab and biomanufacturing space by 2024.
This new lab and biomanufacturing space will create demand for nearly 40,000 net-new employees, based on conservative estimates of two employees per 1,000 square feet. Despite the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, biopharma employment in Massachusetts grew at a rate of 5.5% in 2020, reaching nearly 85,000 jobs and representing a 92% increase over the last 15 years (2005-2020). When breaking down the job growth by sector, research and development (R&D) jobs in Massachusetts grew at a rate of 8.5%, and manufacturing jobs grew 3.7%.
The 2021 Industry Snapshot was produced in partnership with Evaluate®, the premier source for commercial analysis of the pharma and biotech sector. Snapshot statistics are compiled annually by MassBio from sources including Evaluate, National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Quarterly Census of Employment & Wages, Colliers, CBRE, JLL, and others.
Download the full report here.
For media inquiries, contact Caroline Pepek.