Biotech companies in Massachusetts: 727 sites, who makes money and where biologics are made

This is the statewide view, for readers comparing Massachusetts with other states or looking beyond Cambridge: job seekers weighing a move, investors, partners, and suppliers deciding where to put a sales team. For Kendall Square, the Route 128 suburbs and the hospitals, see the Boston biotech report, which goes deeper on R&D budgets and headcounts.

The statewide count

County Business Patterns (CBP) 2023, Massachusetts, NAICS 541714 (biotech research and development) and 325414 (biological product manufacturing):

Research labs make up 687 establishments with 35,946 employees; biologics plants are 40 establishments with 4,839 employees. CBP counts establishments with paid employees, not companies, and leaves out the self-employed.

Size: a deep middle

The 100-or-more band is the total less the two smaller bands, because the Census Bureau doesn't publish the 250 to 499 or 1,000-or-more cells for the manufacturing code. In the R&D code alone, 15 labs have 250 to 499 employees and 5 have 1,000 or more. With 207 establishments of 20 to 99 people, Massachusetts has more funded, lab-owning mid-sized biotechs than most states have biotechs.

Census jobs versus industry jobs

MassBio's 2026 Industry Snapshot counts 113,503 biopharma jobs in Massachusetts in 2025, down 3.1%, the first annual decline in more than two decades it has tracked; biomanufacturing added 238 jobs. That's nearly three times the Census figure because the association counts the whole industry. The two Census codes leave out:

• Small-molecule drug discovery labs often coded 541715 (other life-sciences R&D).
• Drug and diagnostics plants (325412 and 325413) and contract testing labs (541380).
• Corporate headquarters, commercial teams and sales offices, which are classed by function.

Use the Census figure for "how many sites with labs or plants", and the industry figure for "how many people work for biopharma companies".

Beyond Boston

Almost everything is in greater Boston: of the 727 establishments, about 30 are outside the metro (our calculation from the state and metro files). Worcester County has 18 biotech R&D establishments and Bristol County 5; their employee totals are not reported (high-noise figures, which the Census Bureau flags when its confidentiality noise moves a figure by 5% or more).

Manufacturing tells a different story. FDA's drug establishment file, where biologics makers other than blood and tissue banks register, lists 138 Massachusetts registrations, 102 with manufacturing operations. Biologics, RNA and advanced-therapy registrants include:

Five of these sites sit outside the Boston metro. Companies making only investigational products don't have to register until approval, so early clinical manufacturing is missing from the file. In Worcester, Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives, a nonprofit incubator, says it has incubated more than 188 companies since 2000.

The listed companies: who makes money

SEC EDGAR lists 117 listed companies with a Massachusetts business address: 83 in SIC 2834 (pharmaceutical preparations), 32 in 2836 (biological products) and 2 in 8731 (commercial research). The 12 largest by revenue in their latest 10-Ks:

Charles River's fiscal year ended 27 December 2025; all others are calendar 2025. Net income is as reported in each income statement.

Below this table the picture flips: most of the other 105 companies reported under $20 million of revenue or none in SEC data, and fund research from cash raised. For a supplier, profitable companies buy steadily through procurement; the loss-makers buy in bursts tied to financing and trial milestones.

Research money and state incentives

NIH RePORTER shows $3.41 billion of NIH awards to 210 Massachusetts organizations in fiscal 2025 (October 2024 to September 2025), across 5,437 projects. UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester received $189.9 million, the largest total outside Boston and Cambridge. Companies received 229 awards worth $193.9 million, 191 of them small-business (SBIR or STTR) grants.

The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center runs the state's grants, loans and job-creation tax incentives. In June 2025 it announced $29.9 million of tax incentive awards to 33 companies; 18 of them, accounting for 48% of the promised new jobs, were expanding outside Boston and Cambridge. Award announcements name companies that are adding headcount, which makes them a useful trigger list.

How to work the state

1. Start with the association. MassBio publishes the Industry Snapshot, a funding report and a member directory.
2. Check the filing. For any listed company, the 10-K gives revenue, cash, headcount and facilities, including which towns it leases or owns sites in.
3. Map the plants. The FDA file lists every registered manufacturing site with its operations, which is how you find a company's Worcester County or South Coast plant.
4. Watch MLSC awards. A tax incentive comes with a job-creation commitment and a timeline.

Selling to Massachusetts biomanufacturing

Illustrative example. The firm, deal sizes and win rates are invented; the sites come from FDA's registration file.

Quarry Hill Validation (quarryhill.example) qualifies equipment and cleanrooms for biologics plants.

1. Build the list from registrations. The 10 registrants in the table operate 15 registered sites between them.
2. Estimate demand. If each site runs four qualification projects a year at an average of $60,000, that's 60 projects and $3.6 million. Winning one project at each of five sites is $300,000.
3. Find the trigger. Expansions announced with MLSC incentives, new product approvals and FDA inspection findings all create qualification work.
4. Reach the right person. Site validation or engineering leads own the work; quality signs off.

Most of the time goes into matching each site to its current projects. Bebop researches each account in a list and suggests who to contact and why.

For how Massachusetts companies rank nationally, see the largest biotech companies; for drug manufacturing more broadly, the Massachusetts pharmaceutical market report.

Next step: compare a state with a very different mix in biotech companies in New Jersey.