Massachusetts
Massachusetts’ biotech sector sees slower job growth in past year, report finds – The Boston Globe
![Massachusetts’ biotech sector sees slower job growth in past year, report finds – The Boston Globe Massachusetts’ biotech sector sees slower job growth in past year, report finds – The Boston Globe](https://bostonglobe-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/resizer/KnndR_QgTNDhhsmEJU7oZTZzpEE=/506x0/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/bostonglobe/2ZSIKX4AUPSS3KN3TDRNTKU3Z4.jpg)
Massachusetts’ biopharmaceutical industry added fewer than 3,000 jobs last year, its smallest increase in total employment in seven years, according to a report Tuesday by the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council.
Despite economic headwinds and widely reported layoffs, the sector still added 2,943 jobs, said the annual “industry snapshot” by the trade group. The 2.6 percent increase raised the total number of biopharma employees to 116,937.
It was the smallest expansion since 2017, when the sector added 2,895 jobs, a 4.3 percent increase over the previous year’s total of 67,046 jobs.
Ben Bradford, MassBio’s head of external affairs, attributed the modest expansion to the makeup of the state’s biopharma sector.
While 18 of the world’s 20 largest drugmakers have a presence in Massachusetts — including such pharmaceutical giants as Pfizer, Novartis, and Eli Lilly & Co. — the sector is “hugely comprised” of small, growing startups that aren’t making money yet and rely on venture capital to operate, he said.
Venture capital funding of startups in the state fell to $7.67 billion in 2023 from $8.72 billion in 2022, according to the report. In the first half of 2024, venture capital totaled $3.26 billion, down from $3.73 billion for the same period last year.
Still, biotechnology remains a driving force for the Massachusetts economy. The industry accounted for nearly 17 percent of job growth in the state, even though biopharma comprises only 3.7 percent of the workforce.
In some ways, the sector has raised unrealistic expectations, given how it exploded in the early years of the pandemic. The state’s biopharmaceutical workforce grew by a staggering 22,383 employees from 2020 to 2021, or by nearly 27 percent, to 106,679 workers.
Likewise, venture funding skyrocketed early in the pandemic. In 2021, Massachusetts startups received an astonishing $13.66 billion in venture funding as exuberant investors disregarded the high failure rate in drug development and bet on buzzy technologies such as gene editing and messenger RNA vaccines.
Bradford said those years were outliers; the sector attracted many “generalist” investors who were enticed by the success of firms such as Moderna, the Cambridge-based maker of a leading COVID-19 vaccine. Moderna went from being unknown by most of the public to “being in global headlines on a daily basis,” he said.
Moderna, which was founded in 2010, now has 4,400 employees, making it the largest homegrown biopharma employer in Massachusetts and the second biggest overall, according to the report. The biggest employer is the Japanese drugmaker Takeda, which has 6,214 employees in Massachusetts, home to its US headquarters.
Although it remains a pillar of Massachusetts’ economy, the state’s biopharmaceutical sector has laid off thousands of workers in the past three years in what experts describe as one of the industry’s biggest shakeouts in decades.
Takeda in May said it planned to lay off 641 employees in the state between July and next March.
Just last Friday, Tome Biosciences, a Watertown-based gene-editing startup, told state officials that it planned to lay off 131 employees — virtually its entire staff — after scaling back operations. The layoffs were a startling reversal for Tome, which spun out of MIT in 2021 and raised $213 million in venture capital in December.
Jonathan Saltzman can be reached at jonathan.saltzman@globe.com.
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Massachusetts
Mosquito spraying begins Tuesday night in Mass. communities at risk of EEE
![Mosquito spraying begins Tuesday night in Mass. communities at risk of EEE Mosquito spraying begins Tuesday night in Mass. communities at risk of EEE](https://media.nbcboston.com/2024/08/186.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&resize=1200%2C675)
Eastern equine encephalitis, or EEE, concerns are on the rise in Massachusetts, creating safety concerns ahead of the holiday weekend.
The state is now looking to keep communities most at-risk safe by spraying for mosquitos.
Several towns in Worcester and Plymouth counties will be sprayed Tuesday night to try to prevent the spread of EEE.
In southern Worcester County, that will be done through truck-mounted ground spraying, with the trucks driving through heavily wooded neighborhoods over a period of several nights this week.
Meanwhile, in Plymouth County, there will be aerial spraying from two small aircraft contracted through the state Tuesday night and possibly one other night this week.
Both aerial and ground spraying will be done weather permitting, anytime between dusk and about 4:30 a.m.
Residents living within the spray zones should assume their neighborhood is being sprayed until all spraying is completed, the Department of Public Health said.
This preventative measure is in addition to people being encouraged to use bug spray with DEET, wearing long-sleeved clothing and avoiding being out between dusk and dawn when possible, according to Plymouth’s Commissioner of Health and Human Services says, which is when mosquitoes carrying to rare but deadly virus are most active.
“The spraying is one part of the solution, it is not the only solution. It is certainly something that the Department of Public Health thinks is extremely important and is a mechanism to fight against EEE, it is not the only mechanism,” said Michelle Bratti, Plymouth Commissioner of Health and Human Services.
Worcester County will have truck-mounted ground spraying for mosquitoes starting Tuesday night in several communities that are deemed critical or high risk, including Dudley, Oxford, Sutton, Douglas and Uxbridge.
Webster and Northbridge were sprayed last week.
EEE is rare but poses a serious threat to infected people of all ages.
Massachusetts
In This State, a Rare Deadly Virus Spurs a Mosquito Warning
![In This State, a Rare Deadly Virus Spurs a Mosquito Warning In This State, a Rare Deadly Virus Spurs a Mosquito Warning](https://img2-azrcdn.newser.com/image/1555471-12-20240826132717.jpeg)
A “rare but serious” disease has put residents in Massachusetts on edge, with warnings now to stay inside when they can, especially in the evenings, to avoid encountering mosquitoes that can spread the illness. The Bay State hasn’t seen an outbreak of eastern equine encephalitis in four years, but earlier this month, an elderly man was confirmed as the state’s first human case of 2024, and now 10 communities have been flagged as being at high or critical risk for the virus, health officials said over the weekend, per the Washington Post.
- The illness: EEE, transmitted by a mosquito bite, isn’t typically widespread, but 30% of those who contract it end up dying, while survivors often end up with continuing neurological issues. The AP notes that “few completely recover.” Symptoms include fever, headache, seizures, diarrhea, vomiting, and behavioral changes. There’s no treatment or vaccine for EEE. “This is an extremely serious disease with terrible physical and emotional consequences, regardless if the person manages to live,” Jennifer Callahan, manager for the town of Oxford, tells the Post.
Massachusetts
First Tesla store in Western Massachusetts gets green light
![First Tesla store in Western Massachusetts gets green light First Tesla store in Western Massachusetts gets green light](https://www.teslarati.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/tesla-logo-model-y.jpeg)
Tesla has gained a key approval as it looks to open its first store in Western Massachusetts, adding on to a recent authorization it gained to construct a service center.
After Tesla was approved to build a service center at 365 Caldwell Drive in East Springfield late last year, the company has now returned to City Council to request the project add a store to the approved service location, gaining unanimous approval, according to local outlet Mass Live.
Credit: officespace.com
The project will be built into a roughly 35,700-square-foot building at the site, which is zoned for business use. The parking lot has enough space for roughly 360 cars to park, considered more than what the service and sales center would require.
Along with gaining approval from the City Council, Tesla was endorsed for the project by the East Springfield Neighborhood Council after it presented five conditions under which the project could be pursued. These were primarily focused on safeguarding homeowner quality of life near the property, according to the neighborhood council’s President, Kathy Brown.
“We appreciate the attention to detail and neighborhood council is in full support,” Brown said.
The conditions include a need to shield light from surrounding neighborhoods, and that the six on-site charging stations for the project only be used for the business and its customers. In addition, the conditions require Tesla to keep an existing fence and remains of mature trees at the site.
Grey Hannah, Development Officer for 6S Development, says that, while there will be some of Tesla’s vehicles available for demo drives, the company’s online ordering system means that most cars on-site will be for customers who have already ordered them. He also notes that the site is expected to generate around 30 jobs for Springfield.
Prior to being developed for Tesla, the Caldwell Drive location was home to The American Career Institute, which closed in 2013 and faces an investigation from the Attorney General. Since then, the site has been empty and its condition has not been kept up, according to officials.
Until the upcoming Springfield location is completed, the nearest Tesla stores and service centers to those in Western Massachusetts include those in and around Boston, on the Eastern side of the state, as well as others outside in Latham, New York, in Uncasville and Milford, Connecticut, and in Providence, Rhode Island.
Massachusetts Legislation Would Add Perks For Electric Vehicle Owners
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