MassBio is a driving force behind Massachusetts’ life sciences ecosystem, supporting innovation and industry growth by offering best-in-class resources to you—one of the 1,700 organizations at all stages of the biopharma lifecycle we are proud to call members. It is our job to get up every day and find ways to empower you to hit your milestones in the lab, make business connections, and ultimately deliver medicines to patients in need.
How do we do that?
- We respond to our members’ needs and changing priorities.
- We propel life sciences innovation by convening, connecting, and accelerating.
- We enhance the public understanding and policy support for our industry’s contributions.
- We contribute to the region’s ability to train, recruit, and retain life sciences talent.
- We help our members engage, enrich, and diversify their networks and identify funding sources.
- We support and accelerate our members’ businesses.
For nearly 40 years, MassBio has been there with the biopharma companies who have repeatedly changed the game, in the boom times and, more importantly, in the lean ones. As the industry has shifted and morphed, so have we to remain the resource you need us to be. Perhaps no five-year period has been so marked by extremes as the one we just went through, but with our Vision 2030 plan in hand and the Massachusetts Life Sciences Initiative renewed, I couldn’t be more excited about the next decade.
That starts in 2025. Before we toast with champagne on New Year’s Eve and board flights to San Francisco for JP Morgan, let’s look back on the last twelve months and how we spent them together. I’ve organized these by our MassBio Impact Pillars—the places where we aspire to deliver substantial impact by mobilizing the Massachusetts life sciences ecosystem.
Innovation & Business
- Educating scientific founders in the business of biotech through MassBioDrive and giving them access to the world’s most consequential ecosystem. The alumni network now totals more than 30 companies with the addition of this year’s ten cohort graduates.
- Harnessing MassBio’s expansive network and deep connections in the life sciences industry at Pharma Days® and the Align Summit to put emerging technologies and entrepreneurs in front of top biopharma companies and funders. In 2024, MassBio facilitated more than 330 partnering meetings across our events.
- Combining the strengths and networks of MassBio and The Termeer Foundation to have a profound and lasting impact on the ways CEOs and founders interact and grow with each other through the CEO & Founder Link.
Economic Development
- Contributing to a workforce pipeline that fits the needs of our member companies, Bioversity is the largest and most diverse biotech workforce training program in Massachusetts. It completed its first year in its Boston facility, graduating 65 students, and will expand to Lowell in 2025.
- Receiving 21 international delegations interested in tapping into the life sciences ecosystem that’s been built here and 7 other states who want to know how we did it and how we can work together.
Policy
- Working closely with state government leaders to approve the third iteration of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Initiative, another decade-long investment in infrastructure and proven-effective tax incentives.
- Voicing the industry’s concerns in D.C. that policies like the IRA are stifling investment and invention and disrupting the industry’s mission of delivering treatments to patients, and that proposals like the BIOSECURE Act require significant funding to safeguard the U.S. industry and bolster its capabilities.
- Hosting listening sessions between our members and: (1) the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business on the pros and cons of the federal SBIR/STTR seed funding programs, set to be renewed in September 2025, and (2) the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology regarding its forthcoming final report on the advancement of the U.S. domestic biotechnology industry at large, national security, and economic competitiveness.
Member Services (not technically an impact pillar, but a foundational principle)
- Welcoming 200+ new members to the MassBio community.
- Saving you more than $300 million on critical supplies and services through MassBioEdge so you can focus on what your company does best and invest wisely in what’s most important.
- Providing the right space for your event (128 and counting this year), of any size or shape, in the MassBioHub—a place where industry leaders and innovators convene, collaborate, and discover.
Patients, (last on here not because they’re an afterthought, but because they’re at the core of everything I’ve mentioned earlier)
- Elevating patient stories through events like the Patient Advocacy Summit and Rare Disease Day, in our conversations with lawmakers, and in the public discourse on the biopharma industry.
- Listening and sharing stories of the lifesaving innovation happening at member companies.
- Ensuring that all our programming adds value to our members so that your limited resources can go toward your patient-centric activities.
- Participating in a Make-A-Wish visit at HC Bioscience in Boston’s Seaport where a 10-year-old from Texas who is battling Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy got to fulfill his wish to be a scientist for the day.
Looking back at this year, a few specific moments come to mind for me. Having so many of you with us in April for State of Possible where we heard from Super Bowl champion and advocate Devin McCourty about what our industry’s work on sickle cell disease means to him and his family. Getting the call that the LSI would be fully funded for the next decade. Seeing the Tech Square courtyard packed with MassBio members for our Oktoberfest mixer. And hearing Joe and Courtney Dion speak about their two children with an ultrarare disease and how their Foundation has made a gene therapy clinical trial possible in the United States. There are others I could mention, but these four bring it home for me—the intersection of patients, policy, and community.
We have a very exciting year ahead of us as we celebrate our 40th year and focus on implementing not only our Vision 2030 roadmap but also Life Sciences Initiative 3.0 with our partners in government and at the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center. The State of Possible Conference will be in March, and the Align Summit will stand on its own in October 2025. The BIO International Conference will be back in Boston in June—another chance to showcase why this is the place for innovation in patient-driven science. And we know there’ll be many company milestones and breakthroughs to celebrate.
There is no greater privilege than leading MassBio and representing the world’s greatest place for the life sciences. I am so happy I get to do it with you.