Two North Shore companies were awarded a combined $734,000 in tax incentives for 2012 by the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center.
Cell Signaling Technology in Danvers will receive $489,720 in tax breaks, while New England Biolabs in Ipswich will save $244,860 on its taxes.
The tax breaks are among $21.2 million in incentives for 28 life sciences companies announced yesterday by the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, a quasi-public agency created by the state in 2008 to award $1 billion in tax incentives over 10 years. Forty-four companies applied for the tax breaks.
The goal of the program is to provide incentives for life sciences companies to create new jobs in Massachusetts, according to the agency. The 28 companies that are getting tax breaks have committed to creating more than 940 new jobs this year, the agency said.
Cell Signaling has promised to create 20 new jobs in 2012, while New England Biolabs has committed to creating 10.
If companies do not meet the job creation requirements, the state Department of Revenue can require them to pay back all or a portion of the tax incentives.
The tax break for Cell Signaling Technology is tied to its ongoing $20 million renovation of the former New England Biolabs building on Tozer Road in Beverly into a research and development center. Cell Signaling's headquarters is on Route 128 on the Danvers-Beverly line.
The company says it will eventually hire 100 people, most of them scientists, to work at the center, with an average salary of around $70,000.
New England Biolabs, which is headquartered in Ipswich and has a laboratory at the Cummings Center in Beverly, said in its application that it has no immediate building expansion plans, but it does plan to increase its production capacity and hire more people.
New England Biolabs has about 300 employees at its Ipswich and Beverly locations. Cell Signaling has about 280 employees at its headquarters on the Beverly-Danvers line.
Cell Signaling is a spinoff of New England Biolabs, which is run by Donald Comb, the father of Cell Signaling CEO Michael Comb.
Both companies are also receiving tax breaks through another state program, the Economic Development Incentive Program, for investing in their facilities.
Staff writer Paul Leighton can be reached at 978-338-2675 or by email at pleighton@salemnews.com.
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