March 19, 2015
By Riley McDermid, BioSpace.com Breaking News Sr. Editor
The results of BioSpace ’s recent Biotech Temperature Poll are in and Boston, we heard you loud and clear! The vast majority of respondents said they did not think Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ decision to vacate 313,000 square feet of space in the Genetown area meant that Big Biotech will be fleeing Boston.
In fact, when asked if Vertex will consolidate its operations in Boston, 81 percent of the 502 respondents said they believed the company would stay.
Optimism is also high that Genetown isn’t done growing yet. When asked if more biotech/biopharma companies will move to the area, 69 percent said they believed they would, while 31 percent said no.
Perhaps most interestingly, around two-thirds of respondents said they didn’t think Boston-based biotech/biopharma companies would be moving to other locations, with 65 percent polled saying they think the companies already in the area will stay.
The majority of the respondents in this week’s poll were from the United States, with 93 percent of the 502 participants based in America. The rest hailed from a host of countries including Japan, Germany, France, Canada, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Japan, Ireland, Israel, Greece, India, the Netherlands, Germany, Canada, Colombia, Spain and France. Three percent of respondents declined to identify their country of domicile.
For states, Massachusetts led the pack, with 25 percent of the poll’s respondents based in that state. California followed with 20 percent, then New Jersey at 14 percent. The rest were distributed throughout the U.S.
BioSpace Temperature Poll
After Amgen Inc. said last week that it will close its South San Francisco facility acquired during its $10 billion buyout of Onyx Pharmaceuticals and will lay off 300 of Oynx’s 750 workers, BioSpace is wondering—will the number of mergers and acquisitions completed in 2014 mean a “streamlining” of biotech jobs in the Bay Area? Tell us your thoughts.
