PD Storage at ARMI Technologies (Photo Courtesy of ARMI Technology)
"It’s alive,” Dr. Frankenstein shouts as his patchworked corpse comes to life. While we are a far cry from reanimating lifeless tissue, NH is on the cusp of becoming a hub for medical miracles. A steady growth in biotech businesses over the last decade means there are now over 1,000 life science businesses operating in NH working on everything from cutting-edge cancer treatments and a range of medical devices to growing human organs. As of 2023, the bioscience industry employed 9,330 people, a 27.9% increase since 2019, according to a December 2024 report by the Biotechnology Innovation Organization and the Council of State Bioscience Associations. These stretch across the state, from the Upper Valley to the Seacoast and Southern NH.
In a NH Department of Business and Economic Affairs (BEA) report in 2021 the state’s Life Sciences cluster included 11,290 jobs with $4.3 billion in total sales. “The bioscience report is more industry specific whereas BEA took a broader look,” says Andrea Hechavarria, president of the NH Life Sciences Association, explaining the difference in employment numbers between the two reports. Hechavarria says life sciences is an umbrella term covering a wide range of companies in various fields of bioscience, including advanced manufacturing and pharmaceuticals. “The story behind both reports tells you the industry is strong and diverse with a lot of potential and NH Life Sciences looks forward to being a voice for the life science industry in New Hampshire for years to come.”
Multiple organizations have been created to support the evolving life science ecosystem including NH Life Sciences, a trade association with 23 members formed one year ago; the Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute (ARMI), a nonprofit membership organization of public and private organizations focused on the development of large-scale manufacturing of engineered tissues and tissue-related technology; and ReGen Valley Tech Hub, a consortium of organizations led by ARMI aimed at establishing Southern NH as a global leader in bio fabrication.
One of the state’s leading life sciences organizations is ARMI, founded by acclaimed inventor and entrepreneur Dean Kamen. To date, ARMI has received more than $200 million in federal grants, including $100 million in May 2024 that will be granted over the next decade to escalate the large-scale production of human tissue and organs. Julie Lenzer, chief innovation officer for ARMI and the regional innovation officer for the ReGen Valley Tech Hub, says the burgeoning life sciences industry in NH is comparable to the tech boom in California’s Silicon Valley—with one important difference. The growth in Silicon Valley, she explains, often came at the expense of the surrounding community.
“[Silicon Valley] priced out the local community. The people who work there can’t afford to live there,” she says. “We’re taking a community approach to create this new industry in a way that’s authentic for New Hampshire. This means making sure we include the people who live here and providing educational pathways that lead to good jobs.”
The growth of the life sciences sector in NH is fueled by the state’s proximity to Boston’s booming biosciences ecosystem and NH’s strong medical manufacturing industry, which is a necessary partner. Novocure, a global medical device company with its North American headquarters in Portsmouth, was the first member of NH Life Sciences. Novocure was drawn to NH because of the state’s low taxes, a high quality of life and easy access to a “larger life sciences ecosystem,” says William Doyle, executive chairman.
“Our first U.S. employee started Novocure’s U.S. operations on the Seacoast in 2006 and proved that it was an excellent location to recruit talent to a growing company and a highly desirable location to convene global events,” Doyle says, adding that Portsmouth is the northeastern tip of the most important life science ecosystem in the world. “This encompasses the academic research communities of Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts, and extends from Portsmouth to the DEKA and ARMI labs in Manchester and the research community around Dartmouth in the west.”
Creating A Life Sciences Association
The spillover from the bioscience boom around Boston led to steady growth in the NH life sciences workforce for more than a decade. Between 2012 and 2021, 1,484 new jobs were created, a 15.1% growth rate within the industry. Notably, this accounted for 3.8% of the state’s total job growth during that period, according to a NH Department of Business and Economic Affairs (BEA) life sciences industry assessment in 2023.
As companies from the greater Boston region expand beyond Cambridge into Worcester and Lowell, Hechavarria says Southern NH also became an attractive destination. “Our work is to build awareness of the industry in New Hampshire,” she says. “This expansion makes it really exciting for our state and we have all the right ingredients for growth. We’re a low-tax state and we’ve got business friendly policies.”
For Doyle of Novocure, being close to Boston is critical, but being involved in NH is equally important. “We and other business leaders felt it was important to establish a trade association to help advance the industry with state and federal advocacy, to push for bio-ready communities, and help to attract and retain top talent in the Granite State,” Doyle says.
Other members of the trade association include Resonetics in Nashua, a medical device engineering and micro manufacturing company; BA Sciences in Salem, a full-scale analytics laboratory; MilliporeSigma in Jaffrey, which produces filtration devices used to ensure sterility for biopharmaceuticals; and Novo Nordisk in West Lebanon, which develops medicines for people living with hemophilia.
Hechavarria points to a BEA report last November showing that advanced manufacturing in NH generates $8 billion annually and provides 42,000 jobs, saying, “Manufacturing and life sciences go hand in hand.” She cites Lonza located at the Pease International Tradeport as an example, which partnered with Boston-based Vertex Pharmaceuticals in 2023 to build a 130,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Portsmouth that could one day produce therapies that cure Type 1 diabetes.
ARMI Leading the Way
Manchester’s historic Millyard, once the heart of the city’s textile industry, has been undergoing a dramatic transformation led by ARMI and its BioFabUSA initiative. ARMI was launched in 2016 with $80 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Defense.
In 2022, the City of Manchester received a $44 million Build Back Better Regional Challenge grant from the US Economic Development Authority (EDA) to seed the bio fabrication industry in Manchester. ARMI received four out of the six grants together with the city of Manchester, Southern NH University, and UNH. In 2023, the ReGen Valley Consortium was formed as one of 31 designated national Tech Hubs and in 2024 it was one of 12 hubs chosen to receive $44 million in implementation funding across five projects. ARMI is leading two of those projects and the others are being led by Consortium members, The Granite YMCA, UNH, and the Foundation for Healthy Communities.
Lenzer says access to Boston markets as well as the state’s R1 research institutions like the University of NH in Durham and Dartmouth College in Hanover make NH a prime location for life science companies. “And for the life sciences industry to thrive in New Hampshire there needs to be a connected network of resources that includes capital, talent and service providers,” Lenzer says. “It’s accountants, lawyers, marketing people and it’s peer connection because entrepreneurs really love to connect to each other.”
Lenzer was hired at ARMI three years ago, she says, to bring Dean Kamen’s vision and work to fruition. “Dean had a cadre of brilliant scientists, researchers and engineers creating lifesaving products,” she says. “From the business side it’s about translating these brilliant ideas and getting them to patients and customers. I was hired to raise money from investors and help researchers and inventors learn how to talk to clinicians and doctors about their products.”
Another part of her job is helping to grow a larger ecosystem. The ReGen Valley Tech Hub now has more than 50 organizations across the state that are part of the consortium, including NH Housing and the Community Development Finance Authority, Lenzer says. “My job is to make sure all voices in the community are brought together,” she says, adding that a position called chief impact and community engagement officer was recently created to make sure community needs are being addressed.
Lenzer also helps to connect life science companies with academic institutions in the state, including community colleges and the Manchester School District. She is on the board of the NH Tech Alliance and says organizations like this are crucial for the growth of the industry. “They give businesses connectivity to each other and to potential customers as well as talent,” she says. “The goal is to bring companies here to Manchester.”
Julie Demers, executive director of the NH Tech Alliance, says the Alliance celebrates innovation and creates partnerships through the organization’s Innovation Summit and Product of the Year awards, adding the Alliance’s BioMedTech Committee also brings the life sciences sector together to meet current and future medical needs. “New Hampshire is part of an extraordinary, world-leading life sciences ecosystem with the qualities of a small state,” Demers says.
Making Connections in NH
For life science startups, finding investors is crucial to sustaining long-term growth. In 2015, Dartmouth College Engineering professor Solomon Diamond founded Lodestone Biomedical, which uses magnetic nanoparticles to accelerate cancer research by detecting immune response during early-stage drug discovery and development. Nearly a decade later, Diamond is now using equity crowdfunding to finance the continued growth of his company.
Last November, Lodestone launched a 90-day campaign to raise up to $1.2 million in working capital, through the equity crowdfunding site StartEngine. The plan is to help Lodestone pivot from government contracts to private-sector contracts, Diamond says. “I like equity crowd funding because I can cast a wide net for investors rather than doing lots of one-off pitches and it enables broad participation instead of restricting the offering to accredited investors,” Solomon says, adding the defined timeline for the campaign is also a plus. “Overall, I feel more in control of the process with equity crowdfunding.”
The Upper Valley region attracts life sciences companies because of access to resources like the Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth College School of Business and the Dartmouth Regional Tech Center, says Tracy Hutchins, president of the Upper Valley Business Alliance, the region’s chamber of commerce. In 2020, the Alliance launched the MedTech Collaborative to help support the region’s growing Medtech industry and to attract more medical device manufacturers. The MedTech Collaborative hosts an annual two-day conference and pitch competition that attracts more than 600 participating companies and investors from across Northern New England.
“We’re probably where the tech boom was back in the early 2000s,” Hutchins says. “There are some very interesting things being done, like [Diamond’s] company, that wouldn’t have even been a thought 20 years ago. And there’s so much room to grow.”
While startup growth has been steady, Hechavarria say there is work to be done. “Our startup growth is smaller than we want it to be, but we have a robust early-stage ecosystem. We want to spur additional funding so companies can grow and invest here in New Hampshire,” she says, adding that NH Life Sciences is supporting an increase to research and development tax credits for businesses this year.
One company that has been successful attracting investment is BioAI, launched in 2020 with the help of lead investor Dick Anagnost, president of Anagnost Investments, and Andy Crews, former president and CEO of Auto Fair Automotive Group in Manchester and the commissioner of the NH Lottery. BioAI works out of an office in the Anagnost Companies building on Elm Street. “I love the fact that this is happening in New Hampshire,” says BioAI CEO Thomas Colarusso,
During 2020, BioAI built a team of executives with experience in biotech who developed a series of digital biomarker tests. “Our algorithms can analyze digital images of cancer cells and make a range of predictions based on tumor types,” Colarusso says. “By looking at different biomarkers we can quickly predict from the tissue images what specific drugs are available on the market for treatment.”
Today BioAI has 22 full and part-time employees around the world and has generated millions of dollars in sales and revenue over several years. The company secured seed round funding of $3 million in May 2022 and received bridge round funding for $2.75 million in April 2024. “BioAI has a positive outlook for 2025 and anticipates significant growth,” Colarusso says. (For more about BioAI, turn to page 13.)
Creating a Workforce Pipeline
Finding and developing workers for this burgeoning industry will be critical for its future growth. In October, the University of NH Manchester, as well as Manchester Community College (MCC) and UMass Lowell were awarded a total of $10 million from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration to lead workforce development efforts within the ReGen Valley Tech Hub. Manchester Community College will receive $5.6 million, UNH Manchester $4.1 million and UMass Lowell $300,000.
The initiative will drive innovation while addressing critical workforce needs through the creation of the ReGen Valley Common Campus, which Matt Simon, Executive Director of the Biotechnology Innovation Center and ReGen Valley Common Campus, refers to as a “synergistic consortium of higher education institutions.”
“UNH is leading the Common Campus along with Manchester Community College and UMass Lowell,” says Simon. To the best of our knowledge, the ReGen Valley Common Campus is the first higher-ed consortium that has been created to aid in building the workforce for a
new industry.”
Simon says UNH Manchester, which coordinates the Common Campus, is in the process of hiring a workforce counselor and a Common Campus senior program manager. The workforce counselor’s job will be speaking with communities and meeting with individuals to promote job opportunities and hear people’s concerns. “We want to identify what people’s academic interests and backgrounds are and what types of wraparound services people need, whether it’s childcare, transportation, or housing,” he says. “We want to help them navigate the different pathways that might be available to them.”
The Common Campus brings together a host of academic institutions in the region including Franklin Pierce University, Southern NH University, Dartmouth College, UMass Lowell, Rivier University and Saint Anselm College, where each member has access to UNH’s Biotechnology Innovation Center. Located at the College of Professional Studies in Manchester, the Center includes an incubator space for start-up biotech, pharma and med tech companies. “It’s one of the only biosafety level 2 spaces for incubation in the state,” says Simon. Saint Anselm College has also created a “bioethics initiative” supported by ARMI/BiofabUSA in conjunction with the Center for Ethics in Society, and various departments across the college. “A matriculated UNH student could go to Saint Anselm and take courses in bioethics as a part of their education.”
Manchester Community College is also building up their life science department and creating a center for bio fabrication and automated manufacturing that will be located at ARMI’s 75,000-square-foot manufacturing facility at 150 Dow St. The facility will also include space for workforce training, says Simon.
ARMI is addressing workforce concerns through its Apprenticeship Program, a collaborative effort between ARMI and ApprenticeshipNH focusing on training people for careers in biofabrication. ARMI is on its third cohort of the registered apprenticeship program.
Lenzer says the BIA recently joined ReGen Valley’s consortium to address workforce challenges. “We need to attract people back who were here and then left,” she says. “We want people to have a reason to live here and remind them they can do amazing work.”
This spring ARMI ReGen Valley is helping to coordinate a housing summit to serve as a catalyst for more development of affordable housing in the region, Lenzer says. There are also other efforts around housing. Doyle says Novocure works with the BIA and the Chamber Collaborative in Portsmouth to support efforts to create more workforce housing. “We have also engaged in discussions with [former] Governor Sununu and Governor Ayotte on this issue,” he says, adding the company also partners with CASA, Gather, Cross Roads House, Families First and the Granite United Way to address challenges.
The Future of the Life Sciences In NH
When thinking about the future of life sciences in the Granite State, Simon draws an analogy between what Manchester’s Millyard once was and what it is today. “In the 19th century, Manchester was the center of manufacturing for fabric. Similarly, today, we’re manufacturing the fabric of life,” he says. “How cool would it be if some of the people working in bio fabrication today were direct descendants of the original mill workers. Coming back to the mills to manufacture the next generation of products to save lives all over the world.”
To make this happen, Simon says the networks being created between industry, communities, and the Legislature need to continue being built. “It’s not a unilateral mission,” he says. “The implications of bio fabrication and the mission of ARMI resonate incredibly well with me in terms of leveling the playing field for access to health care, housing and other social needs.”
Doyle of Novocure agrees with Simon on this evolution. “We are on the threshold of understanding biology to a point where low-cost cures will be available for most human diseases and longer, healthy life spans will be possible,” he says.
