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To support and develop the world-leading biotech ecosystem of Massachusetts, Gov. Maura Healey puts a focus on people.
Her work for biotech, which has included legislation providing $1 billion in state assistance for the Massachusetts life sciences sector, helped Gov. Healey gain recognition as 2025 “Governor of the Year” from the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO). And much of that work is built around people.
“Any biotech company of any size that’s considering starting up, moving to, or expanding in Massachusetts will know that in our state they’re going to have access to the most educated workforce in the world,” she says. “This world-renowned ecosystem is made of people who thrive and support one another, backed by a government that believes in what they’re doing and supports them too.”
Healey helped build up that ecosystem through her development and promotion of the Mass Leads Act, major legislation to support the life sciences and other types of research that she signed into law in November.
The act dedicates $1 billion to the Massachusetts life-sciences sector over 10 years, including $500 million for reauthorization of the state’s Life Sciences Initiative, a broad effort to drive life sciences and development that’s been running in Massachusetts since 2008. The initiative is spearheaded by the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, which launches funding programs, partnerships, and investment to build the state’s world-class life sciences ecosystem.
The latest reauthorization expands the mission of the Mass Life Sciences Center to add biosecurity, health equity, digital health, and artificial intelligence. The legislation also increases the annual tax credit authorized for the life sciences industry from $30 million to $40 million.
In line with Gov. Healey’s people-oriented approach, the Mass Leads Act does a lot to build human capital. For example, the bill provides $2 million towards a Life Sciences Career & Workforce Development Apprenticeship Hub.
“Under my leadership we’ve really invested extensively in job training programs, in educational grants, internships, professional development, and our teachers and schools,” according to Gov. Healey.
“At the BIO International Convention in Boston in 2023, I announced my Mass Talent Initiative, to help world class employers better connect with the talented workforce that we have here,” she says. “It includes a program called Pathmaker, which awards nearly $1,000,000 in direct funding to organizations that can build and scale career opportunities in life sciences. On the internship front, through the math Life Sciences Center, we’ve supported over 1,000 internships.”
Another portion of the Mass Leads Act is support for applied AI, including $100 million to create an AI hub that brings together universities, research institutions, teaching hospitals, and private companies to collaborate on AI systems that can support life sciences.
“From this we can hope to see quicker advances in discovering cures and treatments, and that’s really exciting,” Gov. Healey says.
Continued growth
Massachusetts has long been a leader in biotech, and its leadership continues to grow. The state added approximately 3,000 new biopharma jobs in 2023, bringing the total to nearly 117,000 jobs in the sector, with an average annual wage of $197,061, according to the 2024 Industry Snapshot report by MassBio.
While the state’s economy benefits, so do patients, who are receiving innovative new treatments. Massachusetts was home to 15.2% of the domestic drug development pipeline, and 6.4% of the global pipeline, according to MassBio. The TEConomy report sponsored by BIO finds that Massachusetts produced 21,386 bioscience-related patents between 2019-23.
It takes more than just state support to develop the biotech sector. Gov. Healey is proud that Massachusetts schools and businesses lead the country in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding, with over $3.5 billion in NIH grants in 2023, according to MassBio.
“You know, for every dollar of federal NIH funding that’s committed in Massachusetts, that’s generating another $5 or $6 in economic activity,” the governor says. “It’s significant to the ecosystem, and from this ecosystem have emerged cures, treatments, and research that has changed the world.”
This is why Gov. Healey is concerned about cuts in NIH funding ordered by the White House that “strike at the core of our biotech ecosystem and our economy.”
Regardless of what happens on the federal level, Gov. Healey says Massachusetts will maintain its support of the industry.
“The sector has continued to thrive in our state despite some of the significant headwinds we’ve seen. I’ve seen company after company make new or renewed investments here in Massachusetts, whether it’s Roche or Vertex, Moderna, Eli Lilly, Novartis, Estrella, Novo Nordisk, Takeda, or most recently, Biogen and AstraZeneca,” according to Healey.
“Massachusetts is going to continue to be the global leader in biotech because we’re investing in a knowledge-based economy—we’re investing in our workforce, our people,” she says.
BIO International Convention in Boston
Gov. Healey will receive her award on June 17 in a ceremony in Boston at the BIO International Convention, the world’s largest gathering of stakeholders in the biotech industry.
This is the fourth time the BIO International Convention has been held in Boston, a recognition of the city’s importance to the biotech industry—and its people, according to the governor.
“Boston’s leadership in the biotech industry is enabled by our unmatched universities, research institutions, businesses, and an incredible, talented, knowledgeable workforce,” Gov. Healey explains. “Meanwhile, it’s very important for Boston to be a place where we host people in biotech and develop these connections with and among entities from all over the world.”
Gov. Healey credits the people around her for her recognition as BIO’s “Governor of the Year.”
“This is really a testament to the important work that our team does every day to make Massachusetts the global hub of science and the biomedical industry, an industry that is vital to the state’s economy,” Gov. Healey says. “I receive this recognition together with my team and partners and stakeholders across this ecosystem.”
