{"id":242695,"date":"2025-07-06T12:45:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-06T12:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/242695\/"},"modified":"2025-07-06T12:45:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-06T12:45:14","slug":"bostons-biotech-sector-reels-due-to-trump-health-policy-uncertainty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/242695\/","title":{"rendered":"Boston\u2019s biotech sector reels due to Trump health policy uncertainty"},"content":{"rendered":"

The live music, free drinks and dancing at a big Boston biotech conference in June belied a stark reality: the city\u2019s biotech sector is in trouble.<\/p>\n

While some industries are still languishing since the Federal Reserve began raising interest rates in 2022, few have been hit as hard as the biotech<\/a> sector by Trump administration policies. <\/p>\n

Concerns about routine medicine approvals from the US Food and Drug Administration have frightened investors. The White House\u2019s calls for lower drug prices<\/a> have chilled deal activity so far this year. President Donald Trump\u2019s attacks on Harvard University have included freezing federal research grants, posing a long-term threat to biotech.<\/p>\n

Altogether, the Trump<\/a> \u201cpolicy uncertainty has resulted in significant turmoil and operational changes at biopharma companies\u201d, Morgan Stanley said in a June report.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the lack of investor appetite for new issues has closed the door for many biotechs waiting to go public. Typically, the biotech sector produces at least a dozen initial public offerings<\/a> a year. But recently, \u201cpublic [biotech] companies have gotten crushed\u201d, said Dan Gold, president of Fairway Consulting Group, which does biotech recruiting. \u201cThere is no exit for venture people when they put in their money now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are actually seeing companies close, which is new,\u201d Gold said. \u201cI have not seen closures at this volume ever.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"TraineesTrainees learn proper procedure to enter a cleanroom at Northeastern University\u2019s biopharmaceutical analysis and training laboratory \u00a9 Craig F Walker\/The Boston Globe\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

For the first six months of the year, the number of biotech IPOs sank to its lowest level since 2012, according to Renaissance Capital. Venture capital firms brought no biotech companies to an IPO for the first time since 2011, Renaissance said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a very tough environment,\u201d said Matthew Kennedy at Renaissance. \u201cAt this point, many of the biotechs themselves might be reluctant to move forward knowing they might have a hard time selling the deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vaccine-maker Moderna, which is headquartered on the north side of Boston\u2019s Charles River, has seen its share price sink 27 per cent this year. The company, a top-20 employer in Boston\u2019s Cambridge neighbourhood, is one of the worst performers in the S&P 500 this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A fifteen minute drive to the north, bluebird bio, which was a $10bn biotech company in 2018, was sold earlier this year for less than $50mn. Vor Biopharma, which is based three subway stops from Harvard University, said in May it would lay off most of its staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we are seeing in public and private markets is a number of companies that are actually folding,\u201d Marian Nakada, a vice-president at Johnson & Johnson\u2019s venture division, said at the conference. In June, Vor announced a $175mn fundraising as part of a licence agreement with a Chinese biotech company, but a Vor spokeswoman said the lay-offs were still proceeding.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe headquarters of bluebird bio in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was valued at $10bn in 2018 \u00a9 Kristoffer Tripplaar\/Alamy<\/p>\n

Boston\u2019s small biotech companies have powered the regional economy. Healthcare is Boston\u2019s largest employment sector. Healthcare and social assistance jobs comprise 22 per cent of the city\u2019s workforce, well above the 14 per cent national average, according to government statistics.<\/p>\n

Boston has enjoyed a symbiotic relationship between the federal government and local universities \u2014 one that has been crippled by government funding cuts. The National Institutes of Health has halted grants to Harvard and other universities, hitting a fertile ground for biotech development.<\/p>\n

Deals in biotech that are getting done are under pressure from Washington. Verve Therapeutics, which is based a short walk from Boston\u2019s famous Fenway Park baseball field, was acquired by Eli Lilly in June for $1.3bn<\/a>. But the deal was prompted in part by the uncertainty following the resignation of a top FDA official, Verve said in a June 25 regulatory filing. The company said its share price plunged after Peter Marks quit, raising concerns that FDA approvals could be delayed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe declining regulatory landscape for biopharmaceutical companies\u201d had made raising cash \u201ceven more difficult\u201d, Verve said.<\/p>\n

\"NursesNurses preparing doses of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine at a facility in Boston during the pandemic \u00a9 Jessica Rinaldi\/The Boston Globe\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Earlier in June, KalVista Pharmaceuticals, which is headquartered on the Charles River, said the FDA missed a regulatory deadline for one of its drug approvals. The delay was \u201cdue to heavy workload and limited resources\u201d at the agency, KalVista said. A company spokeswoman declined to comment beyond its regulatory filings.<\/p>\n

Boston\u2019s June biotech conference was hosted by the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, the sector\u2019s biggest lobbying group. To counter Trump\u2019s policies, the organisation has increased its lobbying this year by hiring former Republican senator Richard Burr, who sponsored the FDA Modernization Act of 1997.<\/p>\n

At the conference, FDA commissioner Marty Makary said the agency\u2019s \u201cmorale is good and improving\u201d.<\/p>\n

But Gold at Fairway Consulting Group said he was having conversations almost every week with FDA employees looking for new jobs. \u201cI think the morale is awful there from what I am hearing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ModernaModerna\u2019s headquarters. It is a top-20 employer in Boston\u2019s Cambridge neighbourhood \u00a9 David L Ryan\/The Boston Globe\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Morale is also suffering at Harvard, Cambridge\u2019s biggest employer. Promising biotech science that starts at such universities can be spun out into independent companies. Boston\u2019s Beam Therapeutics, for example, was co-founded by Harvard professor David Liu. Beam has a licence agreement with Harvard and has paid the university $15mn since the company\u2019s IPO.<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely have long-term concerns about the trajectory of funding in the US and the stability of our science ecosystem,\u201d Beam\u2019s chief executive John Evans said in an interview. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The live music, free drinks and dancing at a big Boston biotech conference in June belied a stark…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242696,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4316],"tags":[105,4348,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-242695","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114806359845469096","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242695\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}