Events

Governor Patrick and two members of his cabinet gather with the Organizing Committee of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Collaborative on March 30th. Left to right: Secretary of Health and Human Services JudyAnn Bigby, Secretary of Housing and Economic Development Dan O’Connell, Governor Deval Patrick, Harvard Provost Steve Hyman and MTC Executive Director Mitchell Adams.

Gov. Patrick announces plans to change state's stem cell research regulations at Massachusetts Life Sciences Collaborative Organizing Committee meeting

CAMBRIDGE – The gathering had the feel, one university provost said, “not unlike a meeting of the United Nations Security Council.”

Crowded around a circular array of tables in a conference room at the Hotel@MIT on March 30th were the best and the brightest of the life sciences industry in Massachusetts.

There were university presidents and provosts from Harvard, MIT, BU, Tufts, Northeastern and the University of Massachusetts.

There were leaders of major research institutes and medical centers, including Beth Israel Deaconess, Children’s Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and the University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center.

There were also corporate leaders from Abbot, Biogen-Idec, Merck, Zoll Medical, Haemonetics, Genzyme, and Novartis, as well as representatives from venture capital investment firms.

There were leaders from industry organizations representing medical devices, teaching hospitals, technology development, and biotechnology companies, as well as the presidents of the Boston Foundation and the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce.

All are members of the newly formed Organizing Committee of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Collaborative (www.masslsc.org). Often fierce competitors in the marketplace for ideas, resources and talent, these leaders were now assembled in a unified effort to create a cross-sector collaboration to enhance the competitiveness of the life sciences industry in the Commonwealth.

How impressive a gathering was it? Gov. Deval Patrick attended – and chose the occasion to hold a news conference announcing his plans to reverse regulatory restrictions on stem cell research that flew in the face of legislative intent. “The life sciences should be guided by science, not politics,” Gov. Patrick told the group. “Science should not be held hostage by political agendas.”

The Governor brought the Secretary of Housing and Economic Development, Daniel O’Connell and the Secretary of Health and Human Services, JudyAnn Bigby to be a part of this forum.

Former Senate President Robert Travaglini also spoke, praising the members of the 43-member organizing committee of the newly formed Collaborative. “This kind of collaboration is what we envisioned,” he said, when the Legislature invested resources in the economic stimulus legislation to support the life sciences industry.

The meeting also featured a presentation by Monitor Group on the results of a survey it conducted on a pro bono basis of the Life Sciences industry “mega-cluster” in Massachusetts. The survey looked at the strengths and weaknesses compared to other life sciences clusters here in the United States and in other countries, and reinforced many of the initial concerns of the Organizing Committee regarding quality of life issues such as affordable housing impacting the ability of Massachusetts to attract and retain the “best and brightest” talent.

The collaboration’s potential to change the climate for the better for the life sciences industry was recognized by most if not all the participants. “We are changing our protein structure,” one university leader told another, in a droll comment that captured the import of the meeting.

In the months ahead, the Organizing Committee has developed a challenging agenda for activities. It has identified eight priority areas of focus and developed task forces to work on each. They include:

In addition, the Collaborative has been working to create a strong presence at BIO 2007 in Boston, which will be held May 6-9 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. The Massachusetts pavilion will be branded as the “Life Sciences Super Cluster.” In addition, there will be 14 booths representing different life sciences non-profit organizations, as well as three booths for the Massachusetts Tech Transfer Center.

A new report on the Massachusetts Life Sciences Supercluster is being developed by the New England Healthcare Institute, the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative and PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

“Less than two years ago, the Governing Board of the John Adams Innovation Institute met at the Boston Athenaeum with industry leaders to discuss the need to invest in a collaborative culture of predictability and persistence,” said Mitch Adams, executive director of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative. “Now, we have in place a formidable new cross-sector collaborative which includes Massachusetts’ world-class universities, teaching hospitals and research companies, its biotechnology, medical device and pharmaceutical companies, as well as the many software, venture capital, plastics and IT companies that contribute to the growth and vitality of the cluster. It is a remarkable accomplishment – but the real success will be developing a comprehensive, integrated strategy to grow this supercluster in Massachusetts.”