Economic Recovery

Creating New, Long-Term Jobs Across Massachusetts

In June 2021, the MLSC announced $19.5 million in tax incentive awards to 28 life sciences companies. The awards, provided through the MLSC’s Tax Incentive program, are expected to create 1,259 new life sciences industry jobs in the Commonwealth. The Tax Incentive program is offered to companies engaged in life sciences research and development, commercialization, and manufacturing in Massachusetts, providing incentives to companies of all sizes looking to expand their efforts by creating new, long-term jobs in Massachusetts.

Out of the 28 companies receiving tax incentive awards, 19 companies – accounting for 68 percent of the new jobs – are expanding outside of Greater Boston. Since the MLSC’s reauthorization in 2018, 82 percent of jobs committed through the MLSC’s Tax Incentive program are located outside of Boston and Cambridge. Out of the 1,259 jobs committed in this round of awards, more than half (633) are in

manufacturing and 310 are in the R&D space. Since the Center’s inception, life sciences companies expanding across Massachusetts have committed to the creation of more than 8,000 jobs through this program.

Secretary Kennealy and President Turner joined state and local elected officials in Worcester for a tour of Mustang Bio, which received an award in the amount of $300,000 that is expected to result in

We are grateful to be among this year’s recipients of a tax incentive award from MLSC. This award enables Mustang to grow our staff and continue advancing our robust pipeline of novel cell and gene therapy programs that address highly challenging diseases.”

Manuel Litchman, M.D.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Mustang Bio

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a net increase of 20 jobs. The clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company is focused on translating today’s medical breakthroughs in cell and gene therapies into potential cures for hematologic cancers, solid tumors, and rare genetic diseases. In 2018, Mustang established a cell and gene therapy manufacturing site in Worcester, Massachusetts, with the goal to manufacture clinical and potentially commercial cell therapy products. Currently, the site employs over 70 employees with additional growth expected in 2021, spurred in part by MLSC investment.

Mustang Bio along with Lyndra Therapeutics, another Tax Incentive awardee committing to create over 30 jobs in Watertown, were featured during the 2021 Biotechnology Innovation Organization’s International Convention.

Lyndra is a fast-growing clinical-stage biotechnology company that is pioneering the first-ever oral, ultra-long-acting, sustained release therapies with its breakthrough oral medication platform. Lyndra is on a mission to

fundamentally change the way people take medicine by enabling patients to take a pill once a week or even once a month, rather than daily, which could help improve medication adherence for people around the world in a number of significant disease areas. The MLSC has continued to utilize the Tax Incentive Program to leverage diverse sciences assets across Massachusetts and to encourage growth and expansion on a statewide basis. The awardees represent a diverse cohort of companies working on drug discovery and development, medical devices, diagnostics, and manufacturing.

By the Numbers

With a keen focus towards economic recovery, the MLSC prioritized companies with the greatest potential to propel our economy forward, spurring job creation.

$19.5 million in tax incentive awards to 28 companies

1,259 life sciences industry jobs expected to generate

Scope of the Companies

68% of new jobs will be outside Greater Boston

633 jobs are in manufacturing

310 jobs are in R&D

Since Inception

8,000+ jobs have been created through the Tax Incentive program.

All the Pieces to the Puzzle

In Massachusetts, we take pride in the cross-industry collaboration that continues to break barriers in what we can accomplish together, as a team. Just this year, we saw academic institutions foster partnerships with industry leaders to create Landmark Bio in Watertown or international innovators like Leukocare and LUMICKS finding a home in Massachusetts. We are proud to fund and help facilitate these partnerships to strengthen our ecosystem, because we recognize that life sciences is more than simply a sector, it is a culture here. To build that culture, it takes a unique and dynamic ecosystem comprised of government, academic, and industry stakeholders working together. This cross-sector leadership will remain integral to continuing the important scientific work to improve patient health and well-being in Massachusetts and around the world.

Cross-sector Collaborations

Landmark Bio is on a mission to help new therapeutics reach patients faster while strengthening Massachusetts’ position as the world’s life science capital. The cross-sector partnership with Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies, Cytiva, and Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. is enabling promising science to propel forward. With the support from Landmark Bio’s partners, they began construction on a new 40,000 square foot facility, to house over 120 employees, and focus on advanced biological manufacturing. The new space is expected to open in 2022 and will concentrate on cell and gene therapy, gene editing, and mRNA products, with a goal to treat or even cure debilitating diseases such as cancer, diabetes, Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer’s.

Partner Highlights

Cytiva, located in Westborough, Marlborough & Shrewsbury, is a global provider of technologies helping to advance and accelerate therapeutics to ensure their customers can continue to perform life-saving actions. The MLSC is proud to support Cytiva’s effort and partnerships through the Tax Incentive program as they commit to creating over 130 jobs in Massachusetts.

Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies is a world leading Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO). They are expanding their manufacturing presence in Watertown with a focus on viral vectors to help prevent or treat diseases. Fujifilm is also a 2021 Tax Incentive awardee.

International Foothold

Leukocare Inc., is a German-based contract research organization that specializes in strong bioinformatics and artificial intelligence approach to formulation development for vaccines and biologics. The company has partnered with Milford-based CDMO company, Rentschler Biopharma, to support the formulation development throughout their manufacturing process. Leukocare built their first U.S. presence in Milford with the support from the MLSC’s Massachusetts Transition and Growth program.

LUMICKS, is a Netherlands biotechnology company aiming to improve human health by empowering researchers with tools that provide unparalleled insight into the fundamental cause of disease and the potential for drug optimization. Their innovative molecular-level analysis and imaging tools, “optical tweezers”, help hold on to individual DNA strands and allow future clinical trials for cell and gene therapies to go forward much quicker and more efficiently. LUMICKS has made Waltham their U.S. home.

Shorla Pharma is a women-led, women-founded innovative oncology company, started in Ireland in 2018 and one of our most recent additions to the Massachusetts biotech ecosystem. Shorla specializes in developing innovative oncology drugs, with a focus on orphan and pediatric cancers, and is rapidly building its U.S. team, headquartered now in Cambridge. The company has an advanced pipeline of oncology products to treat a number of unmet patient needs. The company's development pipeline also includes a drug for treating breast and ovarian cancers.

New Program Supporting the Angel Investor Community

The MLSC launched its Angel Investor Tax Credit program to support investors interested in funding early-stage companies engaged in life sciences research and development, commercialization and manufacturing in Massachusetts.

The Angel Investor Tax Credit program provides a taxpayer investor a credit of 20 percent of the qualifying investment,

or 30 percent if the business is located in a gateway municipality, in a business that has no more than $500,000 in gross revenues in the year prior to eligibility. Credits are available up to $50,000 in any one taxable year for qualifying investments of up to $125,000 per qualifying business per year and up to $250,000 in cumulative qualifying investments for each qualifying business.

The MLSC launched the first round of this initiative in July 2020. Leveraging approximately $450,000 of Center investment, 39 angel investors made $4.3 million in investment to 19 Massachusetts companies.

Company	Location
Amsel Medical	Cambridge
Anodyne Nanotech, Inc.	Medford
Boston Cell Standards Inc	Boston
Cellino Biotech, Inc.	Cambridge
Concerto Biosciences, Inc.	Allston
Decoy Therapeutics Inc.	Cambridge
DxLab Inc.	Somerville
Folia Health, Inc.	Cambridge
Hilltop BioSciences, Inc.	Mansfield
Intera Oncology Inc	Wellesley
KnipBio	Lowell
Kytopen Corp.	Cambridge
LabShares Newton LLC	Newton
LaunchPad Medical, Inc.	Lowell
MindMics, Inc.	Cambridge
MitoLab Inc.	Allston
New View Surgical, Inc.	Boston
QSM Diagnostics inc	Boston
Regenerative Bioelectronics Inc.	Worcester