The Boston Area Chapter wishes a Happy 40th Birthday to Biogen, one of the first biotech companies and one of the only still surviving as a stand alone entity four decades later. To quote from the Biogen website, “Biogen discovers, develops, and delivers worldwide innovative therapies for people living with serious neurological and neurodegenerative diseases. […]

The Massachusetts Biotechnology Council (MassBio®) has announced a new policy to ensure speakers and panelists at all MassBio events are diverse and to encourage those conferences the organization participates in to do the same, effective immediately. This is part of MassBio’s ongoing leadership to improve diversity and inclusion in the life sciences industry. “What I […]

The Massachusetts Biotechnology Education Foundation (MassBioEd) has released its 2018 Job Trends Forecast, which provides an overview of hiring demands in the life sciences industry in Massachusetts, as well as projections of employment growth by sector and occupation. In its third year, the report also includes findings from MassBioEd’s annual survey of industry employers, which […]

Sanofi is investing more than $300 million in its Framingham, Massachusetts, plant as it continues a global manufacturing transformation that at some plants leans heavily on robots and digital processes. But more robots translates into fewer people and so the company will cut nearly 100 jobs at the site even as it expands capacity. Sanofi […]

Alkermes has announced that the FDA has accepted for review its New Drug Application (NDA) for ALKS 5461, a drug for the treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD) in patients who meet certain criteria. FDA’s acceptance of the NDA came just two weeks after the agency issued a Refusal to File letter and follows discussions […]

The BioReady Community designation from Massachusetts Biotechnology Council (MassBio) signifies that a municipality has biotech and life sciences friendly zoning, has a streamlined permitting process, and has robust infrastructure in place. The designation serves to showcase Massachusetts communities that are ready to host new life sciences research and manufacturing facilities. There are currently 84 BioReady […]

Novartis has announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the Illinois-based clinical stage gene therapy company AveXis, Inc. for $218 per share or a total of $8.7 billion in cash. AveXis has several clinical studies in progress for the treatment of SMA, an inherited neurodegenerative disease caused by a defect in a […]

Amgen today announced plans to build a new state-of-the-art next-generation biomanufacturing plant at its campus in West Greenwich, R.I. The new plant, the first of its kind in the U.S., will employ Amgen’s proven next-generation biomanufacturing capabilities and manufacture products for the U.S. and global markets. A next-generation biomanufacturing plant incorporates multiple innovative technologies into […]

Flagship Pioneering has unveiled Foghorn Therapeutics, a unique life science innovation enterprise that uses its proprietary Gene Traffic Control product platform to discover and develop drugs based on novel insights into the chromatin regulatory system which directs gene expression in cells. Flagship Pioneering developed and launched Foghorn Therapeutics through its innovation foundry, Flagship VentureLabs, and […]

Researchers have identified a new ALS gene called KIF5A. This important gene discovery, funded by The ALS Association through Ice Bucket Challenge donations, will help researchers understand ALS disease pathways and represents a potential new ALS therapeutic target. This was a large collaborative effort involving over 250 researchers, led by John Landers, Ph.D., Professor of […]