Biotech Collaboration Shows Path to Growth for Regional Businesses
By Jack Healy, Director, MassMEP
There are often many positive news items reported in the press that have limited impact because they are simply reports of local activities that are perceived to be of limited interest, and are subsequently ignored by media in other areas. One such report was an editorial in the Worcester Telegram and Gazette that noted, "Central Mass owes much of its success in the field of Biotechnology to a virtually unique culture of cooperation among biotech firms, researchers, academia, and government."
The genus of this unique culture of collaboration started approximately 25 years ago when a group of local business people recognized that Worcester, like many other cities in New England, was losing it’s traditional manufacturing base and there was a need to look to the future. These people also understood that because of the local presence of the UMass Medical Research facility, there were opportunities unique to Worcester in the life science area. So they quickly established the Massachusetts Biotechnology Research Institute (MBRI) to provide the catalyst for collaboration that would promote future growth of this industry.
This journey of collaboration and the subsequent development efforts were ably summed up by the Institute’s current chairman Abe Hadad, who described the evolution of this "virtually unique culture of cooperation," as follows:
"We formed the then-named Massachusetts Biotechnology Research Institute to develop a new industrial cluster in Central Massachusetts. Today, the renamed Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives (MBI), located in the Biotech park, for which we advocated, hosts 17 companies with 80 employees.
"When the Worcester Chamber of Commerce and the Worcester Business Development Corporation established the park in 1984, the idea of spending millions of dollars on class ‘A’ research and development space for biotech was considered a gamble. But the late Chamber of Commerce President, Bill Short, had been encouraging Worcester’s civic leaders to see the value of changes in the federal patent and licensing laws enacted in 1980. The changes allowed faster patent processes for biomedical inventions. Also in the 1980’s, Worcester’s City Council adapted newly-issued NIH guidelines on DNA research to create the most progressive set of city research ordinances in the country. That is what attracted BASF Bioresearch Corporation to build here rather than elsewhere in this state or country.
"Today, the Worcester Biotech Park and the new Gateway Park across the city, represent the investment in intellectual property and technology transfer that draws scientists from around the world, who want to work with the best, in the best infrastructure.
"Central Massachusetts believes in infrastructure, When Bristol Myers Squibb wanted to build a Biomed manufacturing plant, it chose Devens, in northern Worcester County, rather than in other states. That company saw the value of our biotech-friendly business climate and its vital research community. Also, several local colleges are investing in their own science buildings and infrastructure. They are not putting their science departments into borrowed space and they are not creating their science faculty on borrowed time. Instead, they are placing top priority on cultivating tomorrow’s researchers.
"Today, the Biotech Park has one million square feet, more than 2,000 jobs, and generates $3 million dollars annually for the Worcester tax base. MBI’s three incubator facilities house 18 emerging companies with more than 80 employees. What was only a vision 25 years ago is now a reality. MBI performs a useful role as the ‘glue that holds it all together.’
"We now have a global reputation as a biotech stronghold, symbolized by the recognition of UMass Medical School researcher Craig Mello for the Nobel Prize for biology and physiology for the discovery of RNAi, or RNA interference, which is seen to silence cancer- causing genes. This research could launch yet more new companies developing technologies that could vanquish illnesses that today stunt the lives and drain the economic resources of millions.
"Now, we’re on the threshold of stem cell therapy, which poses incredible potential for alleviating suffering by allowing tissue regeneration. In the mid-1980s, when we began, people doubted whether it could happen. Today, doubt has been replaced with hope. At MBI, we support the companies that will develop the technologies that improve our healthcare futures. And it will be evident, every step along the way, what it took to get us here. At MBI, we need to continue to strive for what is possible."
In addition to these efforts, the growth of the Life Science Industry in Central Mass has taken a big step forward thanks to Gov. Deval Patrick’s 10 year, $1 billion life science initiative that is now establishing funding for a stem-cell bank at the UMass Medical School.
It is hard to believe in our new globalized economy that such a small group of people could accomplish so much. The people who started and now run MBI have taken what is commonly termed "collaboration" to a uncommon level. Their collaboration goes far beyond usual cooperation or coordination. MBI’s collaboration is a long-term commitment to reaching across political boundaries and increasing the capacity for people to work together. Since investments and people are highly mobile today, the continuing challenge to any local community is to form effective regional coalitions that to support and promote common economic objectives. This is why we believe that the MBI story and it’s contribution to the previously described achievements qualify for distribution in the national media, as a role model of what can be realized from within the framework of "collaboration."
