Count Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick as another true believer in the economic power of biotechnology. The governor used BIO 2007 to stage his announcement that he would propose a $1 billion initiative to promote the development of the industry and push the state as a leader in stem cell research. The money would go to support research and upgrading the work being done at public universities in the state. He also called for the creation of a stem cell bank and a repository of stem cell lines that could be used by researchers the world over, with Harvard, UMass, MIT and others all contributing their stem cell lines.
The plan was a direct challenge to California, which approved a $3 billion stem cell initiative. And it's the latest example of how eager states have become to foster biotech. Massachusetts has one of the country's biggest biotech clusters, but it's achieved that status on the back of some leading research efforts at top-ranked universities and the growth of some of the industry's most prominent players. The state has, until now, largely been seen as a drag on biotech, making it difficult to expand and offering little by way of direct assistance.
- read the governor's announcement for more
- read this article from The Guardian