Boston Business Journal by Julie M. Donnelly, Reporter
Vertex Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: VRTX), AVEO Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: AVEO) and Shire plc (Nasdaq: SHPGY) are among the companies that will receive substantial tax incentives from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (MLSC), in return for creating new jobs. The MLSC, which is tasked with distributing money from the $1 billion Life Sciences Act, has just awarded a total of $21.2 million in tax incentives to 28 life sciences companies, which have promised to create 940 new jobs. If they fail to maintain the jobs for at least five years, the state can take the money back.
Shire, a profitable U.K. company whose rare disease unit is located in Lexington, Mass., has committed to create 100 jobs in return for tax incentives worth $3 million. Cambridge, Mass.-based Vertex, which has had two drugs approved by the FDA in the past year and has recently become profitable, has also promised to create 100 jobs, in return for incentives worth $2.4 million.
Cambridge, Mass.-based AVEO, which could potentially see its first FDA approval for a cancer therapy in the next year, has promised to create 94 jobs in return for incentives worth $2.3 million.
Other companies receiving more than $1 million include Weston, Mass.-based Biogen Idec (Nasdaq: BIIB) which promised to add 75 jobs; Cambridge, Mass.-based Ironwood Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: IRWD), which also promised 75 jobs; Cambridge, Mass.-based Momenta Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: MNTA) which promised to create 50 jobs, and Raynham, Mass.-based DePuy Othopaedics Inc., which committed to add 50 positions.
