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    As filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on April 16, 1997
                                                       Registration No. 33-35067

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                       SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
                             Washington, D. C. 20549


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                         POST-EFFECTIVE AMENDMENT NO. 1

                                       TO

                                    FORM S-8

                          REGISTRATION STATEMENT UNDER
                           THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1933

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                               GENZYME CORPORATION
             (Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)


                                                                 
      MASSACHUSETTS                                                            06-1047163
(State or other jurisdiction of incorporation)                    (I.R.S. Employer Identification No.)


               ONE KENDALL SQUARE, CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS 02139
                    (Address of Principal Executive Offices)

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                           1990 EQUITY INCENTIVE PLAN
                            (Full Title of the Plan)

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                           HENRI A. TERMEER, PRESIDENT
                               Genzyme Corporation
                               One Kendall Square
                         Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139
                                 (617) 252-7500
            (Name, address and telephone number of agent for service)


                                 with copies to:

                            MAUREEN P. MANNING, ESQ.
                               Palmer & Dodge LLP
                                One Beacon Street
                           Boston, Massachusetts 02108
                                 (617) 573-0100


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                                     PART I

              INFORMATION REQUIRED IN THE SECTION 10(a) PROSPECTUS


      On December 20, 1991, the stockholders of Genzyme Corporation, a Delaware
corporation ("Genzyme-Delaware"), approved the reincorporation in Massachusetts
by means of a merger of Genzyme-Delaware with and into its wholly-owned
Massachusetts subsidiary, which merger was effected on December 30, 1991. By
this amendment, Genzyme Corporation, a Massachusetts corporation (the
"Registrant"), hereby adopts this Registration Statement as its own for all
purposes of the Securities Act of 1933 (the "Securities Act") and the Securities
Exchange Act of 1934 (the "Exchange Act"), each as amended. This adoption is as
of December 30, 1991 and is made pursuant to Rule 414(d) under the Securities 
Act.


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                                     PART II

               INFORMATION REQUIRED IN THE REGISTRATION STATEMENT


Item 3.  Incorporation of Documents by Reference.

      The following documents filed with the Commission are incorporated herein
by reference:

      (a) The Registrant's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended
December 31, 1996.

      (b) All other reports of the registrant filed pursuant to Section 13(a) or
15(d) of the Exchange Act since December 31, 1996.

      (c) The description of the Registrant's General Division Common Stock
contained in the Registrant's Registration Statement on Form 8-B filed on
February 28, 1992, as amended by Form 8-B/A filed on March 31, 1995, including
any further amendment or report filed hereafter for the purpose of updating such
description.

      (d) The description of the Registrant's General Division Common Stock
Purchase Rights contained in the Registrant's Registration Statement on Form 8-A
filed on March 23, 1989, as amended by Form 8-A/A filed on November 28, 1994,
including any further amendment or report filed hereafter for the purpose of
updating such description.

      (e) The description of the Registrant's Tissue Repair Division Common
Stock filed in the Registrant's Registration Statement on Form 8-A filed on
September 9, 1994, as amended by Form 8-A/A filed on December 14, 1994,
including any further amendment or report filed hereafter for the purpose of
updating such description.

      (f) The description of the Registrant's Tissue Repair Division Common
Stock Purchase Rights contained in the Registrant's Registration Statement on
Form 8-A filed on November 28, 1994, including any amendment or report filed
hereafter for the purpose of updating such description.

      All documents filed after the date of this Registration Statement by the
Registrant pursuant to Section 13(a), 13(d), 14 and 15(d) of the Exchange Act
and prior to the filing of a post-effective amendment that indicates that all
shares of General Division Common Stock ("General Stock") and Tissue Repair
Division Common Stock ("TR Stock") offered hereunder have been sold or which
deregisters all shares of General Stock and TR Stock remaining unsold shall be
deemed to be incorporated by reference herein and to be a part hereof from the
date of the filing of such reports and documents.


Item 4.  Description of Securities.

      Not Applicable.


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Item 5.  Interests of Named Experts and Counsel.

      Not Applicable.


Item 6. Indemnification of Directors and Officers.

      Section 67 of chapter 156B of the Massachusetts Business Corporation Law
grants the Registrant the power to indemnify any director, officer, employee or
agent to whatever extent permitted by the Registrant's Restated Articles of
Organization, Bylaws or a vote adopted by the holders of a majority of the
shares entitled to vote thereon, if such indemnitee acted (a) in good faith in
the reasonable belief that his action was in the best interests of the
corporation or (b) to the extent that the matter for which indemnification is
sought relates to service with respect to an employee benefit plan, in the best
interests of the participants or beneficiaries of such employee benefit plan.
Such indemnification may include payment by the Registrant of expenses incurred
in defending a civil or criminal action or proceeding in advance of the final
disposition of such action or proceeding, upon receipt of an undertaking by the
person indemnified to repay such payment if he shall be adjudicated to be not
entitled to indemnification under the statute.

      Article VI of the Registrant's Bylaws provides that the Registrant shall,
to the extent legally permissible, indemnify each person who may serve or who
has served at any time as a director or officer of the corporation or of any of
its subsidiaries, or who at the request of the corporation may serve or at any
time has served as a director, officer or trustee of, or in a similar capacity
with, another organization or an employee benefit plan, against all expenses and
liabilities (including counsel fees, judgments, fines, excise taxes, penalties
and amounts payable in settlements) reasonably incurred by or imposed upon such
person in connection with any threatened, pending or completed action, suit or
other proceeding, whether civil, criminal, administrative or investigative, in
which he may become involved by reason of his serving or having served in such
capacity (other than a proceeding voluntarily initiated by such person unless he
is successful on the merits, the proceeding was authorized by the corporation or
the proceeding seeks a declaratory judgment regarding his own conduct). Such
indemnification shall include payment by the Registrant of expenses incurred in
defending a civil or criminal action or proceeding in advance of the final
disposition of such action or proceeding, upon receipt of an undertaking by the
person indemnified to repay such payment if he shall be adjudicated to be not
entitled to indemnification under Article VI, which undertaking may be accepted
without regard to the financial ability of such person to make repayment.

      The indemnification provided for in Article VI is a contract right inuring
to the benefit of the directors, officers and others entitled to
indemnification. In addition, the indemnification is expressly not exclusive of
any other rights to which such director, officer or other person may be entitled
by contract or otherwise under law, and inures to the benefit of the heirs,
executors and administrators of such a person.

      The Registrant also has in place agreements with certain officers and
directors which affirm the Registrant's obligation to indemnify them to the
fullest extent permitted by law and contain various procedural and other
provisions which expand the protection afforded by the Registrant's Bylaws.

      Section 13(b)(1/2) of chapter 156B of the Massachusetts Business
Corporation Law provides that a corporation may, in its Articles of
Organization, eliminate the directors' personal liability to the corporation and
its stockholders for monetary damages for breaches of fiduciary duty, except in


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circumstances involving (i) a breach of the director's duty of loyalty to the
corporation or its stockholders, (ii) acts or omissions not in good faith or
which involve intentional misconduct or a knowing violation of law, (iii)
unauthorized distributions and loans to insiders, and (iv) transactions from
which the director derived an improper personal benefit. Article VI.C.5 of the
Registrant's Restated Articles of Organization provides that no director shall
be personally liable to the corporation or its stockholders for monetary damages
for any breach of fiduciary duty as a director, except to the extent that such
exculpation is not permitted under the Massachusetts Business Corporation Law as
in effect when such liability is determined.


Item 7. Exemption from Registration Claimed.

      Not Applicable.


Item 8.  Exhibits.

      See Exhibit Index immediately following the signature page.


Item 9.  Undertakings.

      (a) The undersigned Registrant hereby undertakes:

         (1) To file, during any period in which offers or sales are being made,
a post-effective amendment to this registration statement:

                  (i) To include any prospectus required by Section 10(a)(3) of
the Securities Act of 1933;

                  (ii) To reflect in the prospectus any facts or events arising
after the effective date of this Registration Statement (or the most recent
post-effective amendment thereof) which, individually or in the aggregate,
represents a fundamental change in the information set forth in this
Registration Statement;

                  (iii) To include any material information with respect to the
plan of distribution not previously disclosed in this Registration Statement or
any material change to such information in this Registration Statement;

provided, however, that paragraphs (a)(1)(i) and (a)(1)(ii) do not apply if the
information required to be included in a post-effective amendment by those
paragraphs is contained in periodic reports filed by the Registrant pursuant to
Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 that are
incorporated by reference in this Registration Statement.

         (2) That, for the purpose of determining any liability under the
Securities Act of 1933, each such post-effective amendment shall be deemed to be
a new registration statement relating to the securities offered therein, and the
offering of such securities at that time shall be deemed to be the initial bona
fide offering thereof.


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         (3) To remove from registration by means of a post-effective amendment
any of the securities being registered which remain unsold at the termination of
the offering.

      (b) That, for purposes of determining any liability under the Securities
Act of 1933, each filing of the Registrant's annual report pursuant to Section
13(a) or Section 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 that is
incorporated by reference in this Registration Statement shall be deemed to be a
new registration statement relating to the securities offered herein, and the
offering of such securities at that time shall be deemed to be the initial bona
fide offering thereof.

      (c) Insofar as indemnification for liabilities arising under the
Securities Act of 1933 may be permitted to directors, officers and controlling
persons of the Registrant pursuant to the provisions referred to in Item 6
hereof, or otherwise, the Registrant has been advised that in the opinion of the
Securities and Exchange Commission such indemnification is against public policy
as expressed in the Act and is, therefore, unenforceable. In the event that a
claim for indemnification against such liabilities (other than the payment by
the Registrant of expenses incurred or paid by a director, officer or
controlling person of the registrant in the successful defense of any action,
suit or proceeding) is asserted by such director, officer or controlling person
in connection with the securities being registered, the Registrant will, unless
in the opinion of its counsel the matter has been settled by controlling
precedent, submit to a court of appropriate jurisdiction the question whether
such indemnification by it is against public policy as expressed in the Act and
will be governed by the final adjudication of such issue.


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                                   SIGNATURES

      Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, the Registrant
certifies that it has reasonable grounds to believe that it meets all of the
requirements for filing on Form S-8 and has duly caused this Post-Effective
Amendment No. 1 to Registration Statement to be signed on its behalf by the
undersigned, thereunto duly authorized, in the City of Cambridge, Commonwealth
of Massachusetts, on this 16th day of April, 1997.

                                          GENZYME CORPORATION


                                          By  /s/ Henri A. Termeer
                                              -------------------------------
                                              Henri A. Termeer, President

      Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, Post-Effective
Amendment No. 1 to this Registration Statement has been signed below by the
following persons in the capacities and on the dates indicated:



         SIGNATURE                        TITLE                        DATE
         ---------                        -----                        ----
                                                              
/s/ Henri A. Termeer                   Director and Principal      April 16, 1997
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Henri A. Termeer                       Executive Officer
                                    
/s/ David J. McLachlan                 Principal Financial and     April 16, 1997
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David J. McLachlan                     Accounting Officer
                                
/s/ Constantine E. Anagnostopoulos     Director                    April 16, 1997
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Constantine E. Anagnostopoulos

/s/ Douglas A. Berthiaume              Director                    April 16, 1997
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Douglas A. Berthiaume                  
                                       
/s/ Henry E. Blair                     Director                    April 16, 1997
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Henry E. Blair                         
                                   
/s/ Robert J. Carpenter                Director                    April 16, 1997
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Robert J. Carpenter                    
                                       
/s/ Charles L. Cooney                  Director                    April 16, 1997
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Charles L. Cooney                      
                                   
/s/ Henry R. Lewis                     Director                    April 16, 1997
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Henry R. Lewis



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                                  EXHIBIT INDEX



    EXHIBIT                                                                   Page
    NUMBER                       Description                                 Number
    ------                       -----------                                 ------
                                                                       
        5.1      Opinion of Palmer & Dodge LLP as to the legality of the       9
                 securities registered hereunder.

       23.1      Consent of Coopers & Lybrand L.L.P., independent             10
                 accountants.  Filed herewith.

       23.2      Consent of Palmer & Dodge LLP (contained in Exhibit           *
                 5.1).

       99.1      Genzyme Corporation 1990 Equity Incentive Plan, as            *
                 amended through May 16, 1996.  Filed as Exhibit 99.1 to
                 the Company's Registration Statement on Form S-8 (File
                 No. 333-10003) and incorporated herein by reference.


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