CAMBRIDGE, MA (Wednesday, March 26, 2025)—Today, MassBio recognized two biopharma companies for scientific and business successes and three leaders in research and policymaking with awards during the 2025 State of Possible Conference held in Boston, Massachusetts. MassBio honored Eli Lilly and Company with the Spirit of Massachusetts Award; RedPoint Oncology as the MassBioDrive Startup of the Year; Massachusetts Speaker of the House Ronald Mariano with the Industry Champion Award; and 2024 Nobel laureates Drs. Gary Ruvkun and Victor Ambrose with the Scientific Impact Award.
“Massachusetts is the global leader in the life sciences because we have everything necessary to go from a scientific discovery to a medicine administered to patients in need, and this year’s MassBio awards exemplify our perfect recipe,” said MassBio CEO and President Kendalle Burlin O’Connell. “You have two outstanding scientific researchers who made a game-changing discovery, a biotech on the cutting-edge of cancer research, a global pharmaceutical company tapping into the talent and innovation happening in the Bay State, and a government leader who has ensured a favorable environment for science and businesses to thrive. Congratulations to this year’s MassBio award recipients on ensuring that this is the place to make possible happen.”
The Spirit of Massachusetts Award is given to an organization embodying Massachusetts’s history of innovation, collaboration, and leadership, and demonstrating a commitment to advancing the local life sciences industry, growing its workforce, and giving back to the community. We are pleased to present this award to Eli Lilly and Company. Despite the company’s size, Lilly embodies an ethos that is essential when you come to the Commonwealth: a desire to complete not compete. As a Midwestern company, Lilly knew that their approach would have to be different here, tailoring a strategy to fit the ecosystem rather than copying and pasting from what worked elsewhere. For Lilly, being integrated into what’s already in Massachusetts means removing barriers for biotech companies, co-locating emerging companies’ research with their own researchers to enable the ‘bump factor’, and letting companies drive how Lilly supports them. Lilly’s Innovation Center is where its workforce will grow from 200 to 500, scientists will work on genetic medicines, and the company will welcome more than a dozen startups at Lilly Gateway Labs. Last year, the Lilly Endowment also awarded grants to the Boston Children’s Museum, Boston College, and Boston University.”The opening of the Lilly Seaport Innovation Center is a key milestone in advancing genetic medicine at Lilly,” said Andrew Adams, group vice president, Molecule Discovery and Director of Lilly Institute for Genetic Medicines, Eli Lilly and Company. “Our relationship with MassBio fosters an environment of collaboration and innovation. Massachusetts’ life sciences ecosystem allows us to leverage cutting-edge technology and expertise to develop life-changing medicines. Together, we are building to a legacy of scientific excellence and community engagement that will drive the future of healthcare.”
The MassBioDrive Startup of the Year is a company working to solve a significant challenge for patients through next-generation science while embodying the spirit of entrepreneurship in the life sciences community to drive innovation. Designed to support early-stage startups and academic founders through the most important stage of their growth, MassBioDrive leverages MassBio’s expansive network to accelerate the world’s most exciting up-and coming science. Through industry-specific business expertise, dedicated mentors, and industry connections, MassBioDrive’s cohorts grow quickly over an eight-week hybrid program and emerge ready to take their next step.
RedPoint Oncology, based in Holden, Massachusetts and a member of the Fall 2024 MassBioDrive cohort, is committed to overcoming therapy-resistant cancers by developing next-generation payloads for targeted therapies. Therapy resistance is responsible for more than 90% of cancer-related deaths, and RedPoint’s payloads are specifically designed to induce a form of cell death that these difficult-to-treat cancer cells are particularly vulnerable to. The modular nature of these payloads allows them to be compatible with various targeted delivery methods, enabling the generation of numerous new medicines. Co-founder Mandy Wang, Ph.D. did her postdoc at UMass Medical School. While her career was steering her toward academia, she discovered her true passion for direct, real-world impact on patient care which led her to start her own biotech. Under Wang’s leadership, RedPoint won NFX FAST Lite’s 2024 program award.
“We’re incredibly honored to receive the MassBioDrive Startup of the Year award,” said Mandy Wang, Ph.D., CEO & Co-founder at RedPoint Oncology, Inc. “The MassBioDrive program has been instrumental in our journey, helping us reach critical milestones and significantly accelerating our growth. We’re deeply grateful for this support and committed to bringing impactful therapies to patients battling difficult-to-treat cancers!”
The Industry Champion Award is given to an individual who has shown consistent support for the life sciences industry in Massachusetts over many years and delivered measurable results. This year’s recipient, Massachusetts Speaker of the House Ronald Mariano, demonstrated steadfast and tireless leadership in getting the third iteration of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Initiative approved, with full funding, during last year’s legislative session. Speaker Mariano has a decades-long record of supporting the growth of the life sciences industry, understanding the unique challenges faced by companies developing medicines and therapies, and recognizing the essential contributions of the industry to the state’s economy and public health.
“I would like to thank MassBio for this honor. As House Speaker, I’m proud to lead an institution that has long recognized the importance of nurturing the life sciences industry,” said Speaker Mariano. “The cluster of innovation that we enjoy in Massachusetts today is the product of a deliberate policy choice, and of a long-term strategy by the Legislature to capitalize on our world-class universities and hospitals to fuel a true innovation economy. The House knows that if we want the life sciences industry to be successful, and in turn for Massachusetts to be successful, we need to make bold, long-term commitments. The investments that we made last session will not only create and maintain jobs in this sector, but they will also continue to provide the world with life-enhancing and life-saving treatments.”
The Scientific Impact Award recognizes researchers who have had a profound impact on a field of study, therapeutic area, or patient population through a scientific or commercial breakthrough. Drs. Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun, this year’s co-honorees, were working with tiny worms in 1993 when they discovered microRNA, which ultimately earned them the 2024 Nobel Prize in medicine. The Nobel Prize committee described their research as a “groundbreaking discovery [that] revealed a completely new principle of gene regulation that turned out to be essential for multicellular organisms, including humans.” When gene regulation goes awry, a person can get cancer, diabetes, or autoimmunity. The discovery has led to treatments for heart disease, cancer, and neurodegenerative disease currently in clinical trials. The two American scientists were working in Massachusetts labs when they made the discovery, Ambros at Harvard Medical School (he’s now at UMass Chan Medical School) and Ruvkun at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. The award was accepted on their behalf by Dr. Robert Kingston, the current chief academic officer and the former chair of the department of molecular biology at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and the former vice chair of the department of genetics at Harvard Medical School.
# # #
About MassBio
MassBio is the driving force behind Massachusetts’ life sciences ecosystem, supporting innovation and industry growth by offering best-in-class resources to over 1,700 member organizations at all stages of the biopharma lifecycle. Founded in 1985, MassBio aspires to extend Massachusetts’ impact as the global center of excellence in biomedical breakthroughs. Through strategic cost-saving initiatives, robust business partnerships, educational and networking opportunities, and proactive advocacy, MassBio empowers its members to launch the next generation of medical advancements to deliver the cures and therapies that enhance patient lives. www.massbio.org
# # #