Good news out of Massachusetts: French drug maker Sanofi-Aventis SA plans to create around 300 new jobs through a $65 million expansion of its Cambridge operations.

According to Boston.com, Sanofi-Aventis’ plan to establish a joint headquarters for a new cancer division makes it just the latest company to expand operations in the state.  Among the reasons drug makers’ have been drawn to the region, according to the report, is its concentration of prestigious research universities and hospitals and a wide-array of bio-tech companies.

“We believe that Cambridge is really the heart of oncology today,’’ Hanspeter Spek, president of Sanofi-Aventis’s global operations, told financial analysts and investors in a conference call earlier this year. “We intend to benefit from this environment as a neighbor.’’

Sanofi-Aventis is already advertising job openings on its Web site that includes laboratory research, clinical trials and marketing.  The Cambridge facility will control the company’s cancer division with its office in Vitry, France.