MA Life Sciences Industry Stays Strong with $5B in VC Funds
CAMBRIDGE, MA – The future of the Massachusetts Life Sciences industry and its impact on real estate seems steady—at least for the foreseeable future.
MassBio’s 2022 Industry Snapshot shows that the sector’s workforce and real estate have grown significantly despite headwinds. Despite a downturn in biopharma stock valuations in 2022, $5 billion was invested in Massachusetts-based biopharma companies according to MassBio.
Notably, more than 57% of investments were made outside of Cambridge in Waltham, Bedford, and Watertown. – A significant increase over 2021’s 42% of total VC investments in those communities.
“With an unrivaled cluster of early-stage companies, and nearly all the world’s top biopharma companies operating here, Massachusetts’ drug development pipeline outpaces all but one state,” says Joe Boncore, CEO of MassBio. “Though the headcounts, square footage, and dollar amounts in this snapshot are essential to demonstrating the strength of the life sciences industry, what keeps us on top is the sustained passion and drive to innovate and advance therapies, cures, and vaccines.”
Other highlights from MassBio’s industry snapshot include:
- The biopharma research & development workforce continues to be the core of Massachusetts’ cluster, exhibiting 17.2 percent year-over-year employment growth, second only to California.
- The regional expansion of the biomanufacturing industry has led to significant year-over-year employment growth compared with competitor states, growing 15.2 percent between 2020 and 2021. With 1.7 million square feet of Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) under construction in Massachusetts, this trend is expected to continue.
- The $5.1 billion in VC funding into Massachusetts companies in Q1 and Q2 of 2022 was more than all of 2019 ($4.73 billion) and represented a full 26 percent of VC funding invested nationally.
- There was a sustained high demand for new life sciences space across the state in 2021. Now totaling 55 million square feet, more than 15 million square feet of life sciences-specific space came online in Massachusetts in 2021, a three-fold increase over the previous year’s growth.