Biopharmas in MA Raised $2.1 Billion in First Half of 2020

The Massachusetts Biotechnology Council has released its 2020 Industry Snapshot report, which shows that the Massachusetts biopharma industry raised $2.1 billion in venture capital (VC) investment in the first half of 2020. The IPO market also remained strong, with seven IPOs from Massachusetts biotech companies in the first half of 2020, making up 33% of all US-based biotech IPOs, and raising an average of $187 million.

In comparison, through all of 2019, VC investment in Massachusetts biopharma companies reached $3.1 billion, a decline from a record-setting 2018. There were 10 biotech IPOs from Massachusetts companies in 2019, accounting for 23% of all US-based biotech IPOs. Of those biotech IPOs, 64% were located outside of Cambridge, raising a cumulative $676 million – a positive trend for the industry.

“In 2019, we saw some of the most severe legislation around drug pricing for the industry, both in Massachusetts and federally, which led to a decline in investment as we predicted it would,” said Robert K. Coughlin, President & CEO of MassBio. “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. It’s also made clear the outsized role Massachusetts life sciences companies are playing in the pandemic, with over 85 companies here working on tests, treatments, or vaccines, many of which are small to mid-sized biotechs that make up the backbone of our cluster and the majority of MassBio membership.”

Massachusetts remains an R&D powerhouse, with biotech R&D jobs reaching 46,000 in 2019, an increase of 18% from 2018. Industry jobs as a whole reached nearly 80,000 in 2019, the largest year-over-year growth since 2007 (7.7% growth from 2018 to 2019), and a 94% increase in the last 15 years.

The 2019 Industry Snapshot was produced in partnership with Evaluate®, the premier source for commercial analysis of the pharma and biotech sector. Snapshot statistics are compiled annually by MassBio from sources including Evaluate, National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Quarterly Census of Employment & Wages and others. (Source: MassBio Website, 28 July, 2020)

Download the full report here.