For decades, Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts, have been as synonymous with the biotech industry as Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, has been with agriculture. But while Greater Boston’s biotech industry is suffering from layoffs and empty lab space, Lancaster is experiencing a life sciences building boom, propelled by an $800 million expansion from GSK.
“We have a very strong and diverse manufacturing economy here. From an employment perspective, our economy is really driven by manufacturing [and] healthcare,” said Ezra Rothman, president of the economic development organization EDC Lancaster County.
While traditional biotech hubs like Greater Boston aren’t likely to lose their dominance anytime soon — MassBio reported that Massachusetts biotech companies saw a nearly 14% increase in drug candidates in 2025, compared with 6.8% nationally — other regions are emerging as unlikely hotspots…