Gov. Deval Patrick's fledgling administration is up against some formidable competition in the battle to attract and keep biotech companies in Massachusetts.
Several U.S. states, particularly California and North Carolina, are using a variety of tactics -- from tax breaks to movie-star power -- to entice biotech firms to build and expand within their borders.
Robert Coughlin, Massachusetts undersecretary of business development, described the atmosphere as "hand-to-hand combat." But it may be more beauty pageant than bloody siege.
Consider California's sheer geographic size, and it makes sense that more than 5,000 biotech businesses are located there. Add to that a promise of $3 billion in state funds for stem-cell research and a body builder-turned-actor-turned-governor, and it's no wonder some executives could be seeing stars.
But local officials tout the Bay State's remarkable innovation, taking place at renowned medical centers and ivy-walled universities. Many leading biotech firms that focus on clinical diagnostics, medical therapy and cancer treatment are headquartered here.
Then again, when put on stage against, say, North Carolina -- where it costs much less to live or operate a business than in Massachusetts or California -- the Bay State has more work cut out for it than simply resting on its laurels and branding itself as having moved beyond its reputation as "Taxachusetts."
The stakes are high. For instance, job rates for biological technicians and scientists are expected to grow by 19 percent between 2002 and 2012, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
And while there are at least seven states heavily focused on biotech, including New Jersey and Texas, the three top biotech industry centers in the nation are California, Massachusetts and North Carolina, according to a 2006 biotech industry report by Ernst & Young Ltd.
In Massachusetts, biotech represents 727 companies that employ 50,000 people, according to the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council.
Biotechnology is big business in California, which has 5,400 biotech businesses and institutions and 236,000 workers in the field, according to California state officials.
California's tactic to draw biotech is to invest heavily in the public university system, said David Crane, special adviser to the governor for jobs and economic growth. "The idea of drawing companies based (solely) on taxpayer funds is not attractive to me," said Crane.
Perhaps the most sought-after commodity by biotech companies is quality of life, according to industry insiders including Carl Lawson of the University of Massachusetts Lowell -- who was part of the team that helped win a $600 million expansion deal from Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. last year -- and California's Crane. "What matters to life sciences executives the most is the quality of life and labor pool," said Crane
