Long live the life sciences
May 6, 2007
MASSACHUSETTS' ability to thrive as a center of the life sciences improved measurably the day Mitt Romney decided to run for president and not for re election as governor. That meant an end to state regulations favored by him that threatened to hobble embryonic stem-cell research. Yet while Governor Deval Patrick's appointees in the Department of Public Health are already proposing changes to the Romney restrictions, it is just one front on which the state must make progress to protect its pre eminence in the life sciences.
Those other fronts stand out in a survey of the industry done by PricewaterhouseCoopers in conjunction with the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative and the New England Healthcare Institute. The survey was released last week in advance of the 2007 BIO International Convention, beginning today at the convention center in South Boston. The state's research universities are tops among several advantages Massachusetts has in competition with other states for life-sciences investment, but it has a major disadvantage as well: a lack of affordable housing that complicates recruitment and retention of young researchers and executives.
That brake on growth is a factor in the fact that employment in the life sciences grew by just 3.5 percent in Massachusetts between 2001 and 2005. At the same time it increased by 17.7 percent in North Carolina, with its lower cost of living, and by 5.9 percent nationally. Life-sciences executives also complain about deficient transportation in this state. Patrick's recent commitment to commuter rail service from Boston to Fall River and New Bedford should improve commuting conditions and make more affordable housing accessible, but the problem will not really be addressed without much more residential development, especially near existing transit stations.
In the PricewaterhouseCoopers survey, executives also call for improved K-12 instruction in math and science. The state's schools should do a better job in science, at least, by the time the science MCAS test becomes a graduation requirement in 2010. Instruction in both fields would likely improve if the state could simplify teacher certification procedures and enhance support for those trained in math and science to move into the classroom from other careers.
The life-sciences industry in this state—and elsewhere across the country—will benefit if Congress increases funding for the National Institutes of Health, which has experienced flat budgets in recent years after substantial growth in the 1990s. But at the state level there is also much that can be done to ensure the strength of this industry, now the second-biggest employer in the state after healthcare itself.