Source: MassBio
Venture capital investments in Massachusetts life sciences firms have increased significantly.
July 28, 2020
Mass. life science industry on track to increase investment 30%
Photo | Grant Welker
AbbVie's Worcester facility
By Grant Welker
The coronavirus pandemic hasn't stopped the Massachusetts biopharmaceutical industry from raising venture capital. In fact, the industry raised far more in the first half this year than it did the first six months of 2019, according to a report released Tuesday.
The industry in Massachusetts raised $2.1 billion in the first half of 2020, compared to $3.1 billion through all of last year, according to a Massachusetts Biotechnology council report. Funding in the last six months has equalled the same number for all of 2016, and beats the amounts raised in any year before that, the report shows.
Seven Massachusetts biotech companies went public in the first six months of this year, making up one-third of all American-based biotech IPOs, the Cambridge-based group said. That's an improvement from last year, too, when 10 Massachusetts biotech firms went public, accounting for 23% of all United States IPOs in the industry.
Robert Coughlin, MassBio's president and CEO, said investment in 2019 was hampered by what he called some of the most severe legislation around drug pricing in the industry.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has since upended our country’s economy, put a spotlight on the true value of the biopharma industry in addressing a human health crisis, and created a better understanding of just how difficult it is to develop a therapy or vaccine," he said.
Coughlin highlighted 85 Massachusetts firms working on tests, treatments or vaccines related to the coronavirus, including Moderna, a Cambridge firm in its third phase of testing for a potential vaccine it is developing in a partnership with the National Institutes of Health.
The Moderna trial, which will be conducted at clinical research sites nationally, is expected to enroll approximately 30,000 adult volunteers who do not have the virus, the NIH said Monday.
Biotech jobs in Massachusetts reached nearly 80,000 last year, MassBio said, growing nearly 8% from the prior year, its biggest year-to-year jump since 2007. The industry's research and development jobs in the state reached 46,000 last year, MassBio said, an 18% increase from the prior year.
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