Central Mass. to benefit from Life Sciences 2.0

Photo | Sam Bonacci Kamal Rashid, the director of WPI's Biomanufacturing Education & Training Center, stands in front of a group receiving training on troubleshooting and root-cause analysis. Investments by the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center have helped grow the field in Central Massachusetts, according to Rashid.

Travis McCready, CEO, Massachusetts Life Sciences Center

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By Sam Bonacci

With its hybrid of open spaces and an educated workforce, Central Massachusetts is set to reap the rewards as the state's biomanufacturing initiative kicks into its second phase.

“I'm really proud that the commonwealth has a hybridized scenario like Worcester,” said Travis McCready, who took over as CEO of the semi-public Massachusetts Life Sciences Center in September. “There continues to be density, and you have the institutions necessary in Worcester to support a right-sized R&D outpost, but importantly you also have the training, workforce development and skilled talent as well as real estate to support manufacturing operations that will support different kinds of jobs.” The state has been in the midst of a push for expanded life sciences since the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center was founded in 2008 with $1 billion in state funds. The organization has used those funds to expand life sciences infrastructure, boost education and generally encourage businesses to settle in the state.

For every $1 the life sciences organization has expended, $3.2 of private funds have been invested, McCready said.

The goal of the agency in this first phase was to establish Massachusetts as a leader in the industry, and the state has risen to that goal – leading the country in per-capita employment in the industry. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Massachusetts' biopharmaceutical jobs reached 60,459 in 2014, up from 43,904 in 2005. The Life Sciences Center has been credited with assisting in the growth of the biotech industry in the state, dolling out over nearly $140 million in grants throughout Central Massachusetts.

“The Life Sciences Center was a commitment from the government. We have added tens of thousands of jobs that have benefitted the commonwealth,” said Tim Murray, president and CEO of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce, who was lieutenant governor when the center was formed. “Life Sciences and biotech have helped transform the Central Massachusetts economy.”

Much of Massachusetts' life sciences growth has centered around Cambridge and Boston with biotech startups and established companies basing their operations focused on research and early-stage development in the area. Even these organizations in Greater Boston have been used to boost life sciences throughout the state, McCready said.

“The really powerful ability through the center is to use the density of life sciences activity in Boston and Cambridge to radiate out into Central Massachusetts,” said McCready, who formerly was vice president of the Boston Foundation and executive director of the Kendall Square Association. “You're starting to see that uptick in activity in the Worcester area with folks like AbbVie coming into the area.”

When it was spun off from parent company Abbott Laboratories in 2012, AbbVie placed an emphasis on a Worcester lab with more than 700 employees working on both clinical trial drugs and new molecules. The facility was originally built by BASF, which opened the lab in 1989. This is one example of how Worcester has established itself as a major hub of the Massachusetts life sciences industry, with academic institutions and nearly 100 companies, said Kamal Rashid, director of WPI's Biomanufacturing Education & Training Center (BETC).

“The (Life Sciences) Center's investments in our region have been smart and effective,” Rashid said. “They have supported important capital projects, like WPI's BETC, and also helped several smaller companies with either direct support or funding interns to work in their labs.”

The activity in Greater Boston may make what is going on in Central Massachusetts small by comparison, but if Worcester was in another state, it would be considered a bioscience center unto itself, McCready said.

The Albert Sherman Center at the University of Massachusetts Medical School was created with the help of $90 million in funding from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center. While that was by far the largest grant locally – and the largest single grant in the center's history – the city has received a number of other grants towards equipment such as a $5 million high resolution electron microscope to the medical school.

This equipment becomes not only a research tool for the school but builds the resources of the area as businesses are able to rent time on expensive machines they wouldn't have access to otherwise. This makes the entire area more attractive to businesses, said Mark Shelton, UMass Medical School spokesman.

As the state evolves its life sciences base, it must look ahead toward producing what these research-and-development-focused companies have pioneered while still continuing to support research, said McCready.

This is where Central Massachusetts has the advantage over Cambridge and Boston, because this region and MetroWest have the manufacturing space and the workforce development infrastructure necessary to produce these products in mass, McCready said.

“We have the space, and we are developing the skilled workforce that can support more companies bringing their manufacturing facilities here,” Rashid said.

GE Healthcare moving to Marlborough is a sign of this shift in the industry already taking place even before a change in the state's emphasis, Rashid said.

Worcester is a kind of hybrid between the open expanses and sophisticated workforce of MetroWest with the research base of Boston through institutes such as UMass Medical School, McCready said.

While all industries go through cycles, it is important for Massachusetts to work to stay ahead of other states that are seeking a piece of the pie. Seven years ago, the competition was strictly between Massachusetts and California. Now the domestic competition extends to New York and Texas, McCready said. Internationally, China continues to improve, and Israel and England remain ever-competitive.

“I don't ever want us to be in a situation where the life sciences is to Massachusetts as the auto industry is to Detroit – slow to react and with a strategy that doesn't realize there are competitive threats developing elsewhere,” McCready said.

That is why it is important to continue to have an ongoing single point of government contact for life sciences companies and organizations interested in the state, said Bob Coughlin, president and CEO of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council.

“The message that the government is open to supporting the industry is crucial, and that is what has led to our success,” Coughlin said.