Life sciences industry lauds Deval Patrick
$1 billion biotech measure sets Massachusetts apart

Boston Herald

By Christine McConville | Monday, June 16, 2008

What a difference a year makes.

Last May, Gov. Deval Patrick announced ambitious plans for an economic stimulus package to position Massachusetts as a leader in the life sciences industry.

Today, he is expected to make good on that promise, by making that stimulus package a law.

Then, he’ll board a plane for San Diego to tout the new law at the BIO 2008 international convention.

Tomorrow, the Biotechnology Industry Organization is planning to present him with the “BIO Governor of the Year” award.

Industry leaders are applauding the high visibility achievements.

“This life science bill is a great advertisement for the whole state,” said Joshua Boger, founder of Cambridge-based Vertex Pharmaceutical Inc. and chairman of BIO’s board of directors. “It is an advertisement for getting done what you say you will get done.”

But there’s an element of tension underlying all this life sciences enthusiasm, because there’s so much competition for these companies and the high-paying jobs they produce.

“We really consider all of the state’s potential competitors, and even outside the country. Ireland, Singapore and India and China, they are all doing great things to bring business there as well,” Massachusetts Life Sciences Center Chief of Staff Melissa A. Walsh said last week.

Patrick introduced his plans for a 10-year, $1 billion investment package last May, when the leaders of the biotechnology world were in Boston, for the BIO 2007 convention.

Last week, the House approved a version of the governor’s life sciences plan and then the Senate followed suit - just in time for BIO 2008.

The final version of the bill calls for $500 million in spending on capital improvements, $250 million in tax credits and $250 million in grants.

Advocates say it will secure Massachusetts’ position as the international home of the life sciences industry, while critics say it is more state aid for political favorites.

Still, competing states and nations are very interested in what Massachusetts has to offer, Boger said. “Every state is watching the accomplishments of this legislative milestone,” he said.

With the American economy in a continued downturn, the life science industry can seem especially appealing.

Massachusetts’ life sciences sector contributes approximately $8.8 billion annually to the state’s economy, according to a just-released report by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the New England Healthcare Institute, the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center and the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative.

The 2008 Massachusetts Life Sciences Super Cluster report also found that the state’s life sciences industry employs 77,247 people. What’s more, the industry’s in-state work force grew 8 percent between 2001 and 2006 while the entire Massachusetts work force shrunk by 2.5 percent, the report says.

And, according to the report, that local activity has sparked more growth.

Massachusetts has a high concentration of academic medical centers, researchers, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and biotechnology, medical device and pharmaceutical companies.

And 71 percent of the people in the industry want to remain part of the Massachusetts super cluster, because being here allows them to be in close proximity to other life sciences firms, the report found.

“We are going to be telling people, ‘Massachusetts is open for business,’ ” Senate President Therese Murray said last week to a group of business leaders.

Murray will join Patrick, House Speaker Sal DiMasi, and Massachusetts Secretary of Housing and Economic Development Daniel O’Connell out in San Diego this week.

Patrick’s office is spending $250,000 to send the governor and 11 staff members to San Diego. It’s not known what the state Legislature is spending for the trip.

The officials who will be there will be touting the state’s new life sciences incentive package as a comprehensive one.

“Our focus is very broad,” said Susan Windham-Bannister, the new head of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, the state agency that will dole out much of the new grant money. She’ll also be in San Diego this week.

Windham-Bannister said California, which recently passed a $3 billion stem cell research spending plan, is a very, very strong competitor.

“But I think ours is better,” she said. “They have had challenges spending their funds, and we have the ability to pay attention to the university system and we are also able to partner with the private sector.

“And we put a lot of stock into training new scientists,” she added.