Tuesday, January 27, 2009

MLSC awards grant to Organogenesis for job, facility growth

By Mass High Tech staff

The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center has announced it will provide a $7.4 million grant to Canton-based Organogenesis Inc. in order to expand the company’s facilities and accommodate its forecasted  job growth.

Organogenesis develops regenerative-medicine products for damaged tissues and organs.

The company has bought two buildings, at 175,000 square feet total, in addition to the Organogenesis headquarters. Company officials said it plans to become the “largest cell therapy manufacturing facility in the world.”

The five-to-six-year project of developing the Organogenesis campus is expected to cost more than $100 million, to be completed in two phases.

Among the returns Organogenesis officials have projected for the local economy are an additional 280 new jobs, to bolster the company’s existing 220-employee workforce. The company has also said it expects to produce about $6 million in annual tax revenue by 2013.

MLSC president and CEO Susan Windham-Bannister said in a statement that Organogenesis’ expected positive impact on the state is a “great example” of the MLSC strategy of awarding grant money.

The MLSC is a quasi-public agency of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts tasked with implementing the Massachusetts Life Sciences Act, a 10-year, $1 billion initiative that was signed into law in June of 2008.

Founded in 1985, privately held Organogenesis’ main product is Apligraf, a skin-replacement therapy used to treat diabetic foot ulcers and venous leg ulcers.