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Massachusetts’ vaunted life-sciences cluster is showing signs of strain, according to MassBio’s 2025 Industry Snapshot published this week. The trade group says venture capital investment in the state’s biotech companies fell 17% from a year earlier to about $2.75 billion during the first half of 2025, the lowest level since 2017. Private financing weakness comes on top of an expected $463 million reduction in National Institutes of Health grants this year, eroding a funding base that has long underpinned local research. Hiring has stalled as money tightens. Overall biopharma headcount was roughly flat in 2024, but R&D and manufacturing jobs declined and industry data compiled by BioSpace show roughly 2,300 layoffs so far in 2025. Laboratory landlords are feeling the pullback as well: broker Newmark puts Greater Boston lab vacancies near 36%, a sharp reversal from the near-zero availability seen during the pandemic funding boom. Capital-markets activity has dried up alongside private investment. Only one Massachusetts biotech, Sionna Therapeutics, has completed an initial public offering this year, down from six in 2024. Despite the slump, the state still captured 22.5% of U.S. venture funding for the sector in the first half, second only to California’s 45.2%. MassBio Chief Executive Officer Kendalle Burlin O’Connell said the report is “disheartening but not surprising,” citing a post-COVID market correction compounded by a federal freeze on academic research spending. One bright spot is science itself: the number of drug candidates in development in Massachusetts exceeded the 2024 tally, suggesting the pipeline remains healthy even as companies navigate a tougher financing environment. How quickly the funding picture improves, the report concludes, will depend on clarity around federal research budgets and a thaw in capital markets.
