The following is an excerpt from a story that originally appeared on NBC10 Boston News on August 28, 2024:
MassBio is a group representing 1,700 organizations in the biotech field that advocates for the industry both on Beacon Hill and on Capitol Hill. The group releases an annual snapshot for how the industry is performing in Massachusetts, their latest of which was released on Tuesday.
“While no one will ever say that 2023 was a banner year for this industry, what’s great to show is that even for a down year for the biopharma industry in Massachusetts, we still added almost 3,000 net new jobs to the economy of Massachusetts,” Head of External Affairs for MassBio Ben Bradford said in an interview with NBC10 Boston.
The report showed that despite layoffs, the biotech workforce grew by 2.6% in Massachusetts during calendar year 2023. While the Commonwealth lost 229 jobs in the biomanufacturing sector, research and development alone accounted for 2,359 new jobs in the state. MassBio highlighted that according to their calculations, Massachusetts is now only 900 total R&D jobs behind California.
“When you consider California is seven times the size of Massachusetts, that puts us in pretty good company,” Bradford said. “It’s great news.”