Thomas Finneran

Mass. Bio launches ad campaign, ups lobbying

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 06:59:56 -0500

The Massachusetts Biotechnology Council (MBC) has two big projects in the works: it's upping its lobbying spending and at the same time kicking off an ad campaign to boost its profile in the state. Recently, MBC has weathered controversy over the council's leadership--former MBC head Thomas Finneran pled guilty to obstruction of justice earlier this year--and its pay packages.

MBC's current CEO, Robert Coughlin, will be leading the effort in Washington to discuss issues such as patent reform and federal research funding. With the ad campaign, MBC hopes to raise local awareness of the work biotechs do in Massachusetts, and the contributions medical research will bring to public health in the future.

- read this article from the Boston Herald

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Mass. Bio members distraught over new controversy

Wed, 05 Sep 2007 06:59:56 -0400

With a fresh controversy swirling around newly appointed Executive Director Robert Coughlin, the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council is being hit with criticism from its own members concerned that the group is constantly finding itself mired in one political scrap after the next. Coughlin has been hit with allegations that he had a conflict when he worked as an aide to the governor, developing biotech initiatives while he was being considered for the top post on the council. His predecessor, former House Speaker Thomas Finneran, was forced to resign after he pleaded guilty to obstruction charges.

"It's a real shame," Alison Taunton-Rigby, chief executive of RiboNovix, told The Boston Globe. "We are an industry that is very clean and very pure and it hurts to have things like this happen."

- here's the article from The Boston Globe

New Mass. Bio chief caught in fresh controversy

Thu, 30 Aug 2007 06:59:56 -0400

In Massachusetts, the politics of biotechnology is something of a blood sport. The new chief of the state's biotech council, Robert K. Coughlin, is mounting a defense against charges that he is guilty of a conflict of interest. The conflict, critics say, lies in negotiating for the job while he was an aide for the governor, working on some significant biotech initiatives. It didn't help that he waited six weeks to disclose the job talks. The job pays up to $500,000 a year. Coughlin replaced Thomas Finneran, a former political heavyweight who very slowly tendered his resignation after agreeing to plead guilty to obstruction charges.

- read the article from The Boston Globe

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