Friday, May 23, 2008

Advisory board named to dole out Bay State bio bucks

By Catherine Williams

Despite an unresolved $1 billion life sciences bill, Bay State business leaders are giving a warm but cautious reception to an advisory board launched this month and tasked with recommending how to invest state dollars in the life sciences industry.

For life sciences companies, the advisory board is a lifeline to state funds — worth as much as $1 billion over the next decade — targeted for jump-starting research and creating jobs. The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center scientific advisory board recommends which scientists, research organizations or businesses should receive grants and loans.

Last week, officials approved the final two members: James Barry, senior VP of corporate technology development at Boston Scientific Corp., and David Lederman, founder and former chairman at Abiomed Inc.

Until lawmakers agree on dueling versions of the life sciences bill, the center’s funding authority and budget are a question mark. Officials hope legislation emerges from a conference committee in time for the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) conference next month in San Diego.

The center plans to award its first industry grants in September from an existing pool of $12 million, said Melissa Walsh, center chief of staff.

Notwithstanding the board’s scientific expertise, one leader said officials should track the investments for advancing job growth “carefully.” Alan Macdonald, executive director of the Massachusetts Business Roundtable, called the board’s scientific representation “impressive.” The board must balance scientific expertise with “business acumen,” he said.
“It’s not just about finding the next drug cure,” he  said. “The winning propositions will have to be 100 percent on their merits because they will be scrutinized.”

Five members of the 13-member board have business backgrounds. Academics (including board chair and MIT professor Harvey Lodish) fill the remaining seats. Four of the academics, including Lodish, have founded some of the state’s largest life sciences companies.

Other board members are Alan Smith, chief scientific officer at Genzyme Corp.; Jeffrey Leiden, managing director at Clarus Ventures; and Lydia Villa-Komaroff, CEO of Boston-based Cytonome Inc.

Lodish, founding member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, was a founder of Cambridge-based Genzyme and Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc. Other members with business ties are Amherst College biology professor Richard Goldsby, who founded South Dakota-based Hematech Inc.; University of Massachusetts Medical School professor Phillip Zamore, who co-founded Cambridge-based Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc.; and Boston University biomedical engineering professor James Collins, who co-founded Rhode Island-based Afferent Corp.

 

Catherine Williams is a freelance reporter in Boston.