Senior executives at Genzyme opened their six-story, glass-covered biologics manufacturing facility to the public on Monday, celebrating the official opening of a building that’s been occupied by more than 500 workers for nearly a year.
Gov. Deval Patrick, area members of Congress, biotech industry supporters and local businesspeople gathered on the top floor of the six-story building – which offers a good view of Bose Corp.’s headquarters in Framingham’s technology park – to hear Genzyme president and CEO David Meeker tell the story of how the 186,000-square-foot building came to be.
Public-Private Partnership
The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, which is charged with shepherding an eventual $1 billion investment in the sector, spent some of its very first public dollars four years ago on infrastructure in the tech park, Meeker said.
The $14 million from the center leveraged a $330-million investment by Genzyme in the facility, which Meeker said “cements and solidifies” the company’s presence in Framingham. Just down New York Avenue is a $125 million science center Genzyme opened in 2008.
The company now employs 2,300 people in Framingham.
Meeker’s remarks followed those of Daniel Kuusisto, an area man who suffers from Fabry disease, which he said runs throughout his family. Kuusisto and his extended family are taking Fabrazyme manufactured in the New York Avenue facility.
“You’ve given us hope,” Kuusisto said. “And you are the only hope we have.”
Lobbying For Support
While Meeker focused mostly on the positive impacts Genzyme’s drugs have on patients, he also took the opportunity of having an audience with Patrick and other state officials to urge further support for the life sciences industry.
While Genzyme values what Massachusetts has to offer, but that the industry should not be taken for granted.
The flourishing industry in the state is “something we all have to nourish,” Meeker said.
“We are a global organization,” he said. “The world is entirely competitive. Everyone wants these plants. Everyone wants these kinds of activities. At some point, the other offers potentially become more attractive, and we’re being outspent in China relative to the kinds of investments we’re going to make here in the U.S.”
In remarks that followed, Patrick pledged his administration’s support.
“I heard the lobbying, I get it,” Patrick said.
He said the state has committed $300 million to the life sciences so far out of the $1 billion pledged five years ago.
“In the past four years, we’ve spent $300 million of public money, your money, that has leveraged over a billion dollars of private investment and created thousands and thousands of jobs,” Patrick said.
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