The following is an excerpt of a story published by State House News Service on January 7, 2025:
Biopharma companies headquartered in Massachusetts secured $7.89 billion in venture capital funding in 2024, a slight increase compared to 2023, according to a new trade group report.
The Massachusetts Biotechnology Council says there were “signs of a rebound for the biopharma industry in Massachusetts” and that “the public market experienced a continued thawing with initial public offerings tripling year-over-year.”
Still, last year’s venture capital haul was up by only $220 million over the year and is dwarfed by the $13.66 billion that companies received in 2021 during the pandemic and falls just short of the $8 billion in funding in 2020.
Massachusetts-headquartered companies in 2024 took in 28.3% of national venture capital funding, compared to 31% in 2023.
In a boon for the biopharma industry last year, state lawmakers struck a deal on the economic development bill that authorized another $500 million for life sciences companies over the next 10 years.
“Massachusetts is well positioned to capitalize on industry momentum with the renewal of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Initiative (LSI) for another decade and the potential for significant early-stage investments, the top priority identified in MassBio’s Vision 2030 strategic plan,” MassBio’s new report says. “The signing of the LSI also sent a signal to investors and companies of all sizes that the Commonwealth remains committed to innovation and patient-driven science.”