With Visions Of Biotech Dancing In Their Heads | Predictions for future industry growth in Worcester are ambitious
A recent study conducted by two Worcester Polytechnic Institute students on the extent of the biotech industry in Central Massachusetts and the Worcester-to-Boston corridor includes some fairly robust forecasts for the industry's future here.
Kevin O'Sullivan, director of the Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives, which runs three biotech incubators in Worcester, requested the survey to quantify the growth he believes is ongoing here in the greater Worcester area and along the Boston-to-Worcester corridor.
The study's authors, Collin Weingarten and Alan Ngo, used the same methodology that WPI students used when quantifying biotechnology here in 2004. This year they drew a statistical picture of the biotech industry in Central Mass. as having grown 136 percent from 2004 to 2008: from an economic impact of $925 million to about $2.2 billion and more than doubling employees from 7,576 at 111 companies to 16,441 employees at 162 companies.
And their projections for 2012 are even better. By 2012 the industry's economic impact in Central Massachusetts is expected to be $6.1 million, a 182 percent jump over 2008. That includes a 159 percent increase in employees to 47,743 and a 67 percent increase to 270 companies.
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Their projections were so strong that O'Sullivan asked them to recheck the numbers. They did, but only very minor number changes had to be made and the projections remain pretty much as they were first developed.
We'll have to see if the forecast proves true. Economically, this area would benefit if it does play out that way, particularly if the state's education efforts in math and science are beefed up so there is trickle-down effect for average workers. The biotech boom will be a true success in the long run only if average workers are a part of that economy, too.
The forecast itself is more remarkable if you simply look at how and where the industry started.
In the early 1980s, there were certainly biotech companies forming, locating in Central Massachusetts, and Worcester specifically, because of existing research at the UMass Medical School and the medical center.
A subcommittee of the Worcester Chamber of Commerce looked at how the city could reinvent itself in the wake of manufacturing losses even then. After studying what other communities around the country had done to remake themselves, the subcommittee put together a 20-year plan for the city. It included developing a research park for biotech companies as a way to encourage the industry in the Worcester area.
The Worcester Business Development Corp., a nonprofit economic development corporation, was the vehicle that physically developed the Massachusetts Biotechnology Research Park, across the street from the UMass Medical Center.
It was 1985 by the time the building was up. At the time of construction reactions to the project were mixed and sometimes negative. Some were so negative, one would have thought that they were digging a giant pit and burying money considering the reactions of some at the time.
And to see what a big player that park and the biotech industry has become in the local economy, contributing $2.2 billion now and up to $6.1 billion four years from now, is pretty amazing.
That a group of business and medical folks believed enough in what the future could hold to slog ahead and build a biotechnology park so the biotechnology industry could grow here, despite the skepticism of many others, speaks a lot about the group and its grit.
I'm not sure even they envisioned the success that we see now, with what at times seems like a biotech startup on every other corner.
But it's here and the forecast calls for great stellar growth.
We'll have to wait and see if the growth matches the predictions, but in today's economy, or any economy, it sounds like a great weather forecast.
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