With  12,000 total employees, Genzyme Corp. employed nearly 5,000 in New England and recently announced 502 job openings in Massachusetts. ...]]>

Cambridge, Mass., dominates the list of biotechnology firms with the most employees in New England—accounting for seven of the top 10 providers of biotech jobs in the region, reports the specialty newspaper Mass High Tech.

With  12,000 total employees, Genzyme Corp. employed nearly 5,000 in New England and recently announced 502 job openings in Massachusetts. The second largest employer of biotech workers in New England, Biogen Idec Inc. claimed almost 2,000 New England employees among its 4,750 total and said it was looking to add 142 people in Massachusetts.

MHT notes that the biotech leaders are hiring in New England at a time when most other companies are growing only cautiously.

Cambridge officials suggest the city has emerged as a hub for leading biotech companies due to the presence of MIT and Harvard University, the nature of the community as a whole and "access to an unmatched pool of talent and a wealth of institutional resources."

An early champion of biotechnology, NEBHE in 1988 published Biomedical Research and Technology: A Prognosis for International Economic Leadership. The report of NEBHE’s Commission on Academic Medical Centers and the Economy of New England explored the promise of New England’s biotechnology industries and issued major recommendations to encourage biotech manufacturing in New England.