EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The fourth meeting of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Collaborative (LSC) took place on December 11, 2007 at the Harvard University Faculty Club’s Library Room.   Twenty-one Organizing Committee Members plus 40 additional guests including press, government and legislative officials, staff, etc. were in attendance.   See agenda for flow and key topic areas of meeting.  Also, the attached presentation contains much of the content that was discussed.   The following is a summary of the key points:

Steve Hyman, Chair of the Organizing Committee, thanked the Committee for its work over the past year.  Mitch Adams indicated that it has been a productive year and could have only been made possible through the vision of the Boston Foundation, UMass, Harvard, MIT, MTC and most notably with leadership from Dr. Hyman.

Steve Hyman’s Opening Remarks:

• Spoke about agreeing to chair the organizing phase of the Life Sciences Collaborative during this past year to lay the foundation for the permanent Leadership Council
• Now we are ready to transition from a Organizing Committee to a Leadership Council
• This group will be led by the following four co-chairs:
• Drew Faust, President of Harvard University
• Susan Hockfield, President of MIT
• Henri Termeer, CEO of Genzyme
• Jack Wilson, President of UMass

Representative Bosley’s discussed his perspectives on life sciences in Massachusetts and the current status of the Governor’s Life Sciences Bill in the Legislature:

• Legislature actively working on Governor’s Life Sciences Bill
• Early stage funding is a priority for the State
• Investments in universities (new equipment and space) is a priority for the State
• Other areas are of key importance which are being addressed by the Life Sciences Collaborative
• Legislators are struggling with figuring out how to increase clinical trials in the State
• Legislators are struggling with ways to enhance early-stage grant money – for example by connecting companies with VCs and Angel investors

Secretary O’Connell’s Remarks:

• Secretary O’Connell opened by talking about the Governor’s Trade Mission to China (December 3 – December 7, 2007)
• Governor Patrick met with Chinese government officials, CEOs, heads of universities, etc with a focus on life sciences, academic partnerships, and renewable energy
• A few major outcomes such as the following:
• Formal agreement between the Massachusetts Medical Device Industry Council (MassMEDIC) and the Chinese Association for Medical Device Industry (CAMDI) to promote economic and technical development collaborations and partnerships from both sides
• China's fourth fastest growing airline agreed to launch nonstop service from Boston to Beijing
• Secretary O’Connell discussed the status of the Governor’s Life Sciences Initiative
• Elements of the Life Sciences Bill will be considered by four joint legislative committees
• Economic Development and Emerging Technologies
• Bonding, Capital Expenditures and State Assets
• Revenue
• Ways and Means
• The Bill is in legislative hearings (2 for the Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies and 3 more scheduled)
• Bill is on track with the hope and intent to have it on the Governor’s desk by mid-February

New Life Sciences Center Chief of Staff Melissa Walsh spoke about the latest status of the Center:

• The Life Sciences Center has a few key programs well underway
• Life Sciences Talent Initiative
• MBC is primary co-sponsor and the work is spearheaded by the UMass Donahue Institute
• Preliminary findings  made to the LSTI Advisory Committee on Oct 24, 2007
• On-line survey to be executed and completed by end of January
• LSTI is soliciting nominations of exemplary workforce development programs from members of the Advisory Committee, Academic Task Force, Workforce Panel, and program contacts from across the Commonwealth
• Major summit on February 1, 2008 to discuss opportunities and findings
• Second report in March of 2008 with summary of findings
• Research Matching Grant Program
• $12 million allocated by Board to this program
• 3 programs: cooperative research grant, new faculty start-up grant, new investigator grant
• Launch event sometime in mid-January 2008
• (Described in more detail by Pat Larkin later in program)
• Stem Cell Bank
• Harvard involved and to donate lines to create the bank
• Will serve as a repository of hESC lines that are derived in research institutions throughout the Commonwealth and beyond
• The MLSC Board has approved a grant of $7.7 million for first year funding to the project
• Stem Cell Registry
• Approved funding for registry located at UMass Medical in Shrewsbury
• Registry will be first of its kind
• MLSC approved grant of $570,000 for Registry’s first year of implementation
• Will be a critical tool for providing life sciences community and the general public with access to the important information relative to the provenance of human embryonic stem cell lines
• Currently undergoing search for Center Executive Director
• Search firm Russell Reynolds conducting national search (job description in packet)
• Reviewing bios by end of year
• Preliminary interviews at end of January 2008
• Finalize interviews at end of February 2008

Kevin Casey’s Remarks regarding status NIH funding:

• NIH in 5th year of flat funding with erosion from inflation which has had a major impact on life sciences research opportunities in MA
• Working on a report on the impact of flat funding on young investigators – to be released in March 2008
• Short discussion on how critical this issue is and the need to find a way to address this down in Washington

Steve Hyman commented on the recent advance in stem cell science:

• The recent discovery shows that through the introduction of four genes to cell fibroblasts, stem cells can be produced.
• After discussions with the Harvard Stem Cell Institute (Doug Melton, etc.) about the significance of this discovery there is a general agreement that while this is a promising avenue, it is an early discovery and we should not give up on the precise trajectory we have been following.

Glen Comiso gave an overview of the mission and accomplishments of the LSC in the past year:

• The mission of the LSC is to create a cross-sector life sciences collaboration to sustain dialogue on critical issues and to ultimately create a comprehensive, integrated strategy for life sciences
• LSC is an independent entity focused on life sciences strategy and planning to help strengthen and grow the life sciences supercluster in the State
• This group (focused on strategy) works in concert with other key entities such as the Life Sciences Center who has an investment focus and other front line groups focused on implementation
• LSC has helped to strengthen the Life Sciences Initiative and included in the Governor’s bill is a role for the Collaborative to comprise a 10-person Advisory Council to the Life Sciences Center
• This past year has brought about many accomplishments including identifying the key life sciences strategic priorities, promoting the SuperCluster at the BIO2007 convention, putting together the Governor’s Life Sciences Forum to inform the Initiative, progress in all three task forces, and many others (refer to attached press release for details of the progress of the LSC)

Priority Task Force Discussions:

• Economic and Business Environment: co-chaired by Mara Aspinall and Michael Collins
• Biomanufacturing – partnered with the Industrial Performance Center at MIT to examine the opportunity in MA and compare with key competitors
• Study has just launched – in the process of conducting interviews and focus groups and identifying the types of biomanufacturing which make most sense
• Comment:  When you put manufacturing in this State, it becomes an anchor out of which research grows – therefore biomanufacturing is a research priority.
• Business attraction / business retention survey launched to help systemize and improve our process; focus on retaining our companies
• Preliminary Findings:
• 21 completed surveys (out of ~50) by CEO’s and decision-makers
• 78% of respondents considered leaving MA and 63% were proactively contacted by other states to lure out of MA
• Comment:  As a State, we don’t explain what we have to offer companies as well as we should.  We also need pre-permitted land, water resources, and everything else necessary to locate companies in MA in place so we can supplement wisely.
• The life sciences transportation opportunity to be discussed at a later date

• Research, Innovation and Commercialization: co-chaired by Aram Chobanian,  Chris Gabrieli and Charles Cooney
• Research Matching Grants
• Three grant programs launched
• Cooperative Research Grant (industry sponsored research)
• New Faculty Start-up Grant (for prominent faculty)
• New Investigator Grants (for up-and-coming researchers)
• Comment: the average age at which an investigator gets a federal grant to be an independent scientist is 42.  Nationally, this is a pipeline problem
• This task force was instrumental in laying the foundation for these programs
• Clinical Trials – pro-bono study to be conducted by healthcare consulting firm Fletcher Spaght to understand opportunity and develop recommendations in this area
• Phase I: project planning and initial meetings with champions
• Phase II: data analysis – MA vs. elsewhere
• Phase III: In-depth interviews
• Phase IV: Working group to develop recommendations
• Implementation
• Comment: We chose to focus on clinical trials because we wanted a topic that is of critical importance but also did not depend on money from outside.  Clinical trials are surprisingly low frequency in comparison to the number of sponsors.
• Regional Innovation Centers next on agenda for group
• Group to understand the opportunity and role for such research centers
• Industry and academic possibilities
• Identified as a part of Governor’s Initiative

• Human Capital: co-chaired by Gary Gottlieb and Paul Harrington
• Gary Gottlieb spoke about the phases of work for this task force
• Phase I: understand and inventory various efforts and programs which touch the life sciences human capital issue
• Phase II: understand and determine industry workforce needs and demands
• Phase III: strategic priorities and recommendations
• Secretary Bump shared a schematic diagram that depicts all the high-level initiatives that are related to the life sciences workforce development programs.  Her office is working to coordinate and pull in these various efforts.   Some of these programs are the LSTI and the work of the LSC Human Capital Task Force.
• Paul Harrington shared data he recently culled on the life sciences workforce and labor supply
• Growth in the industry is largely in the research and development side as compared to manufacturing
• MA has expanded by 12%
• We depend tremendously on foreign labor supply (1/3 of industry with bachelors degree or higher are foreign)
• There is little interest in life sciences at a young age
• This group will build upon this data and will focus on the needs of the life sciences employers in this state and determine where there are opportunities
•  

Meeting closed with a special recognition of Steve Hyman’s service as the Chair of the Organizing Committee

The work of the task forces will continue and it is critical that members continue to contribute and participate in those strategic efforts.  The task forces are open to anyone from this group interested in pushing forward a particular topic.

As was mentioned, the Life Sciences Collaborative will be transitioning from an Organizing Committee structure to a permanent Leadership Council in the Spring of next year.