MassBio exists to serve the 1,700 member organizations that make Massachusetts the global epicenter of life sciences innovation. Whether you’re at a kitchen table sketching out your first startup idea or leading a publicly traded company toward commercialization, our mission is the same: empower you to advance your science, connect with the right partners, advocate for policies that let you take smart risks, and ultimately deliver breakthrough treatments to patients who need them.

It is hard to characterize 2025 or put it into one bucket. The first half of the year reflected genuine uncertainty about whether the fundamentals of our industry were still intact. But as we close out the year, we’ve allowed ourselves some cautious optimism. The XBI’s surge, sustained M&A appetite, and stabilizing interest rates signal that some preconditions for recovery are in place, though major pain points remain. The critical question for 2026 is whether improving late-stage sentiment translates into renewed and sustained early-stage activity, including hiring, more venture capital rounds, and increased seed investments.

Through uncertainty and optimism alike, MassBio has remained your constant partner, amplifying your voice on Beacon Hill and in Washington, and strengthening the infrastructure that supports innovation. As we prepare to kick off 2026 in San Francisco at JP Morgan, it’s worth reflecting on what we accomplished together this year.

Innovation & Business

• Expanding and evolving Drive (formerly MassBioDrive) into a national accelerator supporting scientific founders wherever they operate. This year we launched our first techbio cohort, recognizing that data-driven tools like artificial intelligence and machine learning are transforming drug discovery. The 2025 cohorts included 10 companies: five biotech and five techbio, representing five states and three countries. Nearly three-quarters of the companies have a founder from an underrepresented background. All 21 companies pitched at the Align Summit. New partners, including Google, F-Prime Capital, and Lumanity, joined us in this mission. The alumni network now totals more than 50 companies.
• Harnessing MassBio’s expansive network at Pharma Days® (averaging 254 attendees across events), and the Align Summit (nearly 400 attendees, 55 presentations, more than 250 partnering meetings, and six countries represented). In standing-room-only presentation rooms, emerging technologies and entrepreneurs connected with top biopharma companies and funders who can help bring their innovations to patients.
• Envisioning and hosting the first R&D Reimagined, where we curated a slate of providers and partners that are bringing genuinely innovative approaches to the table that can save you time and dollars.
• Growing the CEO & Founder Link to more than 300 founders in the network and expanding its footprint at JP Morgan, combining the strengths of MassBio and The Termeer Institute to have a profound impact on how CEOs and founders interact and grow with each other.
• Launching the Palmetto Beacon Venture Fellowship and partnering with Google to provide AI Training for Drug Discovery, ensuring founders have access to both capital and cutting-edge tools.

Economic (and Workforce) Development

• Contributing to a workforce pipeline that fits the needs of our member companies, Bioversity graduated two cohorts in Lowell and launched a Moderna biomanufacturing cohort, bringing total graduates to 120 since the program’s launch in Dorchester last year. With 31 different employers hiring and a 75 percent job placement rate, Bioversity is proving its impact. Our expanded partnership with YearUp further strengthens our commitment to creating pathways into the industry.
• Welcoming 24 international delegations to learn from Massachusetts’ life sciences ecosystem, including a dedicated South Korea Day that showcased our state’s collaborative approach to innovation.
• Publishing critical industry data through our Biopharma Funding & Pipeline and Industry Snapshot reports, including the sobering news that Massachusetts saw a decline in biopharma R&D jobs for the first time in recent memory, underscoring the urgent need for policy support.

Policy

• Working with federal partners to secure two top national priorities in the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act: preservation of orphan drug incentives and restoration of full R&D expensing. These provisions encourage critical follow-on investment into rare disease research and allow small, emerging companies to immediately deduct research and development costs.
• Advancing a bipartisan approach to strengthening NIH funding, FDA operations, and SBIR programs, while releasing our Federal Impacts Report to document how federal policy decisions affect Massachusetts companies and their ability to serve patients.
• Providing written testimony to the U.S. Senate HELP Committee on the future of biotech and submitting multiple high-impact federal comment letters on CMS drug pricing guidance, Medicare payment rules, USTR trade issues, and SBIR reauthorization.
• Elevating state priorities by hosting the annual Policy Leadership Breakfast with more than 40 legislators, bringing Governor Healey, Speaker Mariano, and cabinet members to State of Possible, and welcoming 30 state legislators to the Massachusetts Pavilion at the BIO International Convention in Boston. We also provided extensive feedback on 340B reforms, PBM transparency, and patient access protections, and testified in person in support of the Governor’s DRIVE Initiative.
• Partnering with the Massachusetts Caucus of Women Legislators for our third annual Women’s Health Symposium, this year focusing on women’s brain health and Alzheimer’s disease, a condition that disproportionately affects women both as patients and caregivers.
• Amplifying our “This is the place.” campaign to showcase why Massachusetts remains the global hub for life sciences innovation.

Member Services

• Welcoming 178 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 perfect space for your meetings and events in the MassBioHub, hosting members throughout the year.

Patients

• Elevating patient stories through the Patient Advocacy Summit with its powerful theme “Purpose, In Spite of Pressure,” and Rare Disease Day, ensuring the voices of those we serve remain central to our daily efforts.
• Showcasing patient advocates on major stages, including rare disease parent champions Courtney and Joe Dion at the Patient Advocacy Summit and cystic fibrosis advocate Gunnar Esiason at BIO in Boston.
• Listening and sharing stories of the lifesaving innovation happening at member companies.

Looking back at this year, a few specific moments stand out. Sharing the perseverance stories at State of Possible of my friends Christine and Heather, whose lives were impacted by colon cancer, and the challenges of my Aunt Dee as a caregiver of a spouse with Alzheimer’s disease at the Women’s Health Symposium. Watching the standing-room-only presentation rooms at Align Summit overflow with investors eager to hear from emerging companies. Seeing our Industry Snapshot data confirm what many of you have been experiencing, the first decline in R&D jobs, and redoubling our advocacy efforts in response. Producing our “This is the place.” campaign to spotlight what this region offers to scientists and patients, and getting to speak with the industry pioneers who were part of its growth these last four decades. And hearing nine-year-old Maggie Dion, fresh off a clinical trial for an experimental gene therapy, remind us why we do this work: for patients and families whose lives depend on our industry’s persistence and innovation.

We have an exciting year ahead of us. In March, the State of Possible Conference returns with the theme Behind the Breakthrough, revealing the people and purpose that fuel innovation long before the headlines arrive. We’re also launching new Vision 2030 initiatives, including training for future leaders in partnership with The Termeer Institute and providing platforms to support early-stage founders with critical business needs.

The Commonwealth’s responsibility is clear: maintain and strengthen the advantages that made us the global leader through continued investment in research infrastructure, local programs that support risk-taking and company formation, talent development and retention, and advocacy at the federal level for innovation-friendly regulations and consistent funding.

Our industry’s responsibility is equally clear: execute. Biotechs must continue pushing the limits of what’s possible in the lab for the benefit of patients. Pharma must put its dry powder to work getting great science from the clinic to a pharmacy counter. And all of us must do what we can to get founders and early-stage startups the support they need.

Leading MassBio, an organization that represents the companies changing and saving lives in the best place in the world for life sciences innovation, is the honor of my life. I look forward to working alongside all of you in the year to come.

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