Mass. biopharma is bouncing again. However the jobs haven’t but.

Employment declined for the primary time in additional than twenty years, in keeping with a brand new report, because the trade navigates a chronic downturn.

Scene within the lab at Biogen in Cambridge. Suzanne Kreiter/Globe workers

Massachusetts’ biopharma trade is displaying indicators of a comeback, however its workforce continues to be feeling the results of the downturn.

Employment within the state’s biopharma sector fell 3.1% in 2025, or about 3,600 jobs, marking the primary annual decline in additional than twenty years of MassBio monitoring the trade, in keeping with the commerce affiliation’s newest report.

The losses had been concentrated in analysis and growth, the place employment fell 3.9%. Biomanufacturing, in the meantime, added 238 jobs after two years of declines.

The pattern wasn’t distinctive to Massachusetts. Most main states with giant biopharma R&D workforces additionally misplaced jobs final yr. Nonetheless, Massachusetts stays a nationwide participant, accounting for 22.3% of the nation’s biopharma R&D workforce, second solely to California.

“This report exhibits the biotech flywheel is spinning as soon as once more,” mentioned Kendalle Burlin O’Connell, CEO and president of MassBio. “Capital is flowing, corporations with compelling knowledge are going public, and science is getting rewarded.”

There are indicators that hiring is choosing again up, too. Sanofi, Vertex, Pfizer, Alnylam, AbbVie, and Biogen all added employees in Massachusetts in 2026, in keeping with the report. Lilly greater than doubled its native workforce, from 540 to 1,423 staff.

Moderna was among the many corporations chopping jobs because it continues to cut back from its pandemic-era development.

Funding is coming again

Massachusetts biopharma corporations raised $3.45 billion in enterprise capital within the first half of 2026, up 25% from the identical interval final yr. It marks the trade’s strongest first half since 2023.

Eight Massachusetts corporations additionally went public within the first half of the yr, matching the mixed whole from 2024 and 2025. And 11 Massachusetts corporations had been acquired for a reported $18 billion.

However a lot of the funding goes to extra established corporations, the report mentioned. The common Collection A funding spherical grew to $79.6 million, whereas the typical seed spherical fell to $4.65 million, indicating that newer corporations are nonetheless struggling to get off the bottom.

Challenges stay

Massachusetts additionally faces uncertainty round federal analysis funding. The state obtained 9.3% of all NIH funding in 2025, however the variety of NIH awards fell 6.2%.

In the meantime, Massachusetts is going through rising competitors from China. China’s drug pipeline grew 36.2% over the previous yr, surpassing Europe’s for the primary time.

As well as, almost one-third of the area’s lab house remained empty as of final yr.

The annual MassBio Business Snapshot tracks employment, funding, drug growth, and actual property within the state’s life sciences trade. MassBio represents greater than 1,700 life sciences and biopharma organizations throughout Massachusetts.