Woburn Life Sciences Company Announces Expansion

WOBURN, MA — State and local officials were in Woburn on Tuesday to mark a major expansion for the Woburn-based Comera Life Sciences.

Company officials were on hand alongside State Sen. Cindy Friedman, State Rep. Richard Haggerty and Woburn Mayor Scott Galvin, among others, for a ribbon cutting at a more than 5,000 square-foot lab and executive office facility on Gill Street near I-95.

Comera celebrated the move in a later press release, vowing to double its current workforce of 12 staff members in the coming years.

Comera is a life science company focused on what it describes as “bio innovative biologic medicines.”

“The expansion of our headquarters in Woburn is a milestone achievement as we continue to advance our internal pipeline and collaborations with some of the largest biopharmaceutical companies,” company Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Hackman said. “This expansion is another step forward in supporting our continued growth as we execute on our long-term strategy to transform the lives of patients.”

Comera specifically focuses on injectable therapeutics, emphasizing products that it hopes will help patients self-administer therapies that have historically only been administered by intravenous (IV) infusion.

“Access to necessary and lifesaving medications is a huge barrier for many in our commonwealth,” Friedman said this week. “The work of Comera Life Sciences seeks to directly address this barrier by providing a more convenient and equitable way to access these medications.”

She said she was “pleased” to have Comera continuing its work within Woburn city limits.

Haggerty similarly shared his praise for Comera and local economic development efforts in Woburn.

“Life science firms see the benefits of locating and growing in Woburn, and I look forward to seeing what the future holds for Comera as the firm grows and increases its workforce in our community,” he said.

Massachusetts Biotechnology Council President and Chief Operating Office Kendalle Burlin O’Connell noted a recent trend of companies moving some or all of their operations outside of traditional life science areas in Boston and Cambridge.

Woburn has bustled with life science arrivals and multiple new life science facilities either proposed or constructed in recent years.

Close to Woburn, major life science players Vericel and The Broad Institute recently announced their own plans to add new facilities in Burlington.

Dubbed industry “giants” by the Burlington Economic Development Office, Vericel and the Broad Institute are forecast to bring around 700 new jobs to Burlington as they launch their new local facilities.

“It makes careers available to new pools of talent and brings economic development to new cities and towns that are BioReady,” Burlin O’Connell said of this phenomenon.