Boston Business Journal -- Fourteen of the 26 Massachusetts life sciences companies that received state tax incentives in 2009 failed to meet their job creation commitments in 2010, the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center disclosed.
The tax incentive deals included clawback provisions, which the state could exercise after a further investigation of the companies that fell short, the center said.
As previously reported by the Business Journal, the largest incentive that didn’t produce the intended results went to Genzyme Corp. (Nasdaq: GENZ). The Cambridge-based biotechnology firm gave back its $6 million incentive in January after layoffs and the sale of one of its business units cut its headcount in Massachusetts.
A total of five companies have already determined they were unlikely to reach their job creation commitment, and opted to terminate their agreements, according to the Life Sciences Center. Those companies were Cambridge-based Genzyme; FoldRX Pharmaceuticals of Cambridge; GTC Biotherapeutics of Framingham; NeuroMetrix of Waltham; and Zoll Medical of Chelmsford. Genzyme had committed to create 200 jobs, while the other companies had committed to create a total of 57 jobs.
Collectively, the five companies had been awarded nearly $7.4 million in tax incentives, nearly a third of the total of $24.5 million that was awarded in 2009.
Meanwhile, nine other life sciences companies also have been found to have fallen short on their commitments, the Life Sciences Center disclosed. Eight of those companies did not reach at least 70 percent of their job creation commitment. “These companies will be subject to an investigation by the Center as to why the statutory threshold was not reached,” the Life Sciences Center said in its analysis of the tax incentives, which were awarded for the first time in 2009.
The dozen other companies that received tax incentives all met or exceeded their job creation commitments, according to the Life Sciences Center. They included Shire HGT of Lexington, which had a commitment of 150 jobs, and Biogen Idec (Nasdaq: BIIB) of Weston, which had a commitment of 50 jobs.
The 21 companies that ended up taking a total of $17 million in incentives created 607 jobs, above the 574 jobs that the companies had committed to, the Life Sciences Center said.
In December, the Life Sciences Center announced that 30 companies would receive a total of $23.9 million in tax incentives in the second year of funding.
