Mass life sciences to challenge Silicon Valley with regional approach
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Travis McCready explained Monday that a regional approach is needed to take on Massachusetts' main life sciences competitor: Silicon Valley.
To take on Silicon Valley, Massachusetts must bank on a regional approach and push the talents of the Boston to Worcester corridor, according to Massachusetts Life Sciences Center CEO Travis McCready.
Silicon Valley, Massachusetts’ main competition in terms of life sciences development and hiring, spans a total of about 50 miles, and is home to about 3 million people -- roughly the same size and population as that area between Boston and Worcester.
With that in mind, McCready said it makes no sense to focus the Commonwealth’s innovation economy on just Boston and Cambridge.
“We’re not competing against Silicon Valley with just Boston and Cambridge, we’re competing against Silicon Valley and other regions with this entire region that we have. And we’re going to be a little bit more intentional about supporting the businesses local economic development effort in the region.”
McCready touched on this and a variety of other topics as part of a speech he gave at Marlborough’s Sunovion Pharmaceuticals on the state of the life sciences industry in Massachusetts and what’s in store for the future.
McCready, who took over as CEO of the semi-public center in September, outlined the Commonwealth’s current potential and his vision for the future in the speech. The future of life sciences in Massachusetts will focus on regionalization, innovative infrastructure and business development.
These are some of the points he discussed:
Regionalization has been and will continue to be a key part of his approach, McCready said. Looking at his schedule from the past four months, he said he has spent most of his time outside of Boston and Cambridge. He said the life sciences center plans to hire someone dedicated to being a liaison between the Center and local economic development efforts.
“It’s making the capital and the programs available to ensure the life sciences industry outside of Boston and Cambridge continue to grow in a robust way,” McCready said.
Innovative Infrastructure. Through the Center’s accelerator loan program, McCready wants to get involved in the early stages of research and development, because that’s when the funding ends up being the most useful, he said.
MLS Capital Project. There has been controversy surrounding MLSC’s capital fund, with a longtime board adviser resigning earlier this month because he was disappointed that the Baker administration didn’t include any money for the MLSC Capital Project fund in its yearly budget proposal. But McCready said funds will be available for the project in the future. “The capital program will be launched. It’s not a matter of ‘if,’ it’s just simply a matter of getting back on cycle,” he said. “The capital program will be launched in a couple of months, and we’ll be able to continue to make these kinds of investments in physical infrastructure.”
Human capital. Over the past six years, MLSC funded over 2,200 internships for students in every region of the state through its internship program, and 20 percent of these students have been hired full time, McCready said. MLSC’s next venture is developing an apprenticeship program through partnerships with high schools.
“We know that the incubation period for folks with scientific expertise is much longer than incubation period for someone looking to learn how to code, so if we don’t go deeper into the high school, this highway we’ve created through the internship program will have very specific and bounded rails,” he said. “We want to blow those rails away and create a ‘super highway,’ if you will.”
Diversity. Under that same human capital umbrella, more needs to be done to make sure that opportunities exist for everyone, regardless of gender, race or ethnicity, McCready said. Compared to National Science Foundation data on people employed in life sciences nationwide, life science interns in Massachusetts drastically fell short in racial diversity, and matched in terms of gender, which McCready said is “like saying, ‘we’ve done great when we’ve achieved mediocre.’” McCready said he sees increasing diversity as a personal challenge of his.
“This is one of those moments where it’s not about doing something that is good, this is about remaining competitive, this is about remaining globally competitive with a great workforce,” he said.
Business development. McCready didn’t delve too far into specifics on this topic, only saying that it was on his mind and that MLSC is rethinking the ways it can provide businesses the support they need in order to grow.
Intersection of life sciences and technology. One of the biggest changes the life science industry is currently undergoing is its intersection with computer science, data science, engineering and art, McCready said, something he said MIT calls the “convergence revolution.” Since technology companies like Google are investing increasingly in life sciences, it’s time for pharmaceutical and medical device companies to think about how they can work with the tech sector.
“I feel like I have a front seat in the greatest scientific drama in human history. What is taking place here in this industry and a result of this convergence … is simply unimaginable,” he said. “It’s produced areas of study we’ve never heard of before or seen before but are now critical.”
Future of MLSC. The life sciences center was founded in 2007 with a up to $1 billion initiative. Roughly half of its budget goes towards capital, and a quarter each goes to the tax incentive fund and an investment fund, respectively. Though it was supposed to be a 10-year initiative, McCready said MLSC is here to stay. “We are going to continue to exist. We will talk with the legislature, our partners in the legislature about continuing to exist. You have the support of the governor in that conversation, so let’s take that question of our existence off the table.”
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