NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Caliper Life Sciences and the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research are among 30 firms to receive tax incentives from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center aimed at creating jobs in the state.
In total, MSLC, which is a quasi-public agency that was formed to foster job creation in the life sciences sector in Massachusetts, has awarded $23.9 million in tax incentives. The firms that won the incentives have committed to creating nearly 1,000 jobs in the state within the next year.
According to MSLC, Hopkinton-based Caliper, which makes several platforms for automation, liquid handling, and imaging applications, will receive an incentive amount of $270,000 for creating 11 jobs.
Other genomics-related technology firms that received incentives were Woburn-based HighRes Biosolutions, which received a $125,000 incentive for 10 jobs, and Medford-based Nanobiosym Diagnostics, which received an incentive of $673,381 for 25 jobs.
Among the bigger companies to win incentives was the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, a Cambridge-based research arm of pharmaceuticals and diagnostics firm Novartis, which received an incentive of $1.1 million for a commitment to create 42 jobs. Lexington-based drug firm Shire-HGT received roughly $5.9 million for 150 jobs, and Cambridge-based Vertex received an incentive of $2.4 million for 90 jobs.
"This tax incentive program is already working to stimulate our economy, while holding the companies involved accountable for their job creation commitments," Susan Windham-Bannister, president and CEO of MSLC, said in a statement.
The Life Sciences Tax Incentive Program was established in 2008 as part of Massachusetts' 10-year, $1 billion Life Sciences Initiative, which authorized up to $25 million in tax incentives annually for firms in the life sciences industry to create new long-term jobs in the state.