Health board OKs LabShares lab permit

Board of Health · Meeting of April 15, 2026

Watertown's Board of Health voted 2-0 to approve a biosafety umbrella permit for LabShares at 66 Galen Street, letting the shared-lab operator oversee compliance for its member biotech companies rather than requiring each tenant to hold its own permit. LabShares CEO Philip Borden said the company's roughly 25 Newton-based member companies typically stay "about three and a half years," and the firm has worked with more than 93 companies since 2018. The board conditioned approval on LabShares sending monthly biosafety-committee minutes to the health department and Dr.

Lieberman. Separately, the board tabled a tobacco violation case against Busstop Variety on Galen Street, where an underage buyer allegedly bought a $9.50 pack of cigarettes without an ID check; the store's owner, who said he has run the business 28 years without a citation, asked for a warning instead of a violation. The board will revisit the case May 20 after hearing from its tobacco inspector.

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Source: the Board of Health meeting of April 15, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.

Checked against the record: before publication this article was automatically compared with the meeting transcript. It was corrected where it differed.