March 22, 2022 (CAMBRIDGE, MA) – The Massachusetts Biotechnology Council (MassBio®) today released a community guide for municipal leaders to better understand the biotechnology industry, how biotech facilities operate, and what leaders can do to best position their community for successful biotech development. This community guide comes at a time when life sciences development is expanding rapidly outside of traditional clusters.
“There is no better time than right now for municipal leaders to better understand what it takes to attract life sciences to their communities,” said Joe Boncore, CEO of MassBio. “MassBio welcomes the opportunity to work with cities and towns leaders to grow additional life sciences clusters and spread the ancillary benefits the life sciences industry can bring to a region, as we’ve seen with Cambridge and Boston. Innovation breeds innovation, which is why we see these clusters form. Life sciences and biopharma companies like to locate near each other and share the benefits of an ecosystem.”
According to MassBio’s 2021 Massachusetts Biopharma Funding Report, lab space vacancies are at 0% in Cambridge and Boston, which will lead to expansion beyond these traditional clusters. Towns looking to attract life sciences organizations can learn about the general characteristics of facilities and the biosafety measures taken to regulate lab spaces. The guide intends to open the door for new clusters and the groundbreaking facilities that come with them.
“We couldn’t be more excited to offer guidance to municipalities that are considering becoming BioReady communities,” said Kendalle Burlin O’Connell, President & COO of MassBio. “Expanding biotech clusters to new regions will create new construction, lab, and manufacturing positions providing economic opportunity to more residents while also bringing new economic vitality to downtowns across the state.”
Currently, there are 90 BioReady communities across the Commonwealth that have made a commitment to hosting the life sciences industry, including Waltham, Lexington, Watertown, and Woburn. The guide offers greater detail regarding the BioReady rating system and the requirements of each tier of the four-tier system for municipalities.