RI leaders want to build life-sciences industry using Massachusetts biotech model

PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island leaders want to grow their own version of Massachusetts' much-envied biotech industry with a new independent agency built to nurture a life-sciences cluster in the Ocean State.

To do it, they brought in the architects of former Bay State Gov. Deval Patrick's decade-long $1-billion biotech bet to draw up a blueprint for a Rhode Island version.

They recommend that the state invest $50 million over two years to start up a new quasi-state agency that would invest in Rhode Island life-science companies, coordinate workforce-training programs and utilize some of the economic-development incentives currently controlled by the state's Commerce Corporation.

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The initiative started last year with the Rhode Island Foundation, which paid for the work and caught the attention of House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi.

Shekarchi said in a news briefing Wednesday that he expects legislation relating to a biotech hub will be introduced and vetted when state lawmakers begin next year's legislative session in January.

It's too early to say what the details of a House plan will be and how much money might be involved, Shekarchi said.

More news expected next week

However, he teased a separate announcement next week with a "national government official" that will "take this idea and move it forward."

Rhode Island Foundation CEO Neil Steinberg said last year he was curious why the long-debated spillover of startups and medical research from Boston into the Providence area has never materialized at any scale.

"I've been in downtown Providence for 45 years and I have been hearing about the spillover from Boston coming for about 45 years and I have never seen the spillover from Boston really come down the road," he said.

On the introduction of former Providence Mayor Joseph Paolino, he hired former Massachusetts Biotechnology Council CEO Bob Coughlin and former Massachusetts Life Sciences Center President Travis McCready to look into it. Both now work for real estate brokerage Jones Lang Lasalle.

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Most healthy clusters are home-grown

Their message to Rhode Island leaders was that "spillover" activity from a larger city isn't as common a phenomenon as people think and most healthy life-science industry clusters are home-grown.

And the piece of the puzzle Rhode Island has been missing all these years is government investment and a single-purpose government agency to put all of the academic and corporate participants toward a common goal, they said.

"It doesn't happen on its own," Coughlin said. "You need a government entity working with industry to make it happen."

The Jones Lang Lasalle report was followed by a "Life Sciences Plan" written by Damon Cox of the MassChallenge startup accelerator that outlined what a new biotech-focused agency would look like and do.

"This newly forged agency along with an industry-facing partner organization like [the Rhode Island Biotechnology Council] would be key in turning the cluster of activity currently in Rhode Island into a vibrant ecosystem," the plan from Cox said.

The new quasi-state biotech agency would likely be spun off from the Commerce Corporation, have a $2-million operating budget and be led by a $200,000-a-year executive director.

Of the $50 million, the report recommended the state use $30 million to seed a new investment fund and $17 million for grants.

The new life-sciences agency, or "hub," as the plan calls it, would work with colleges and K-12 schools to help teach the skills students will need to work in biotech jobs. This could include STEM grants, high school apprenticeships and internship programs.

What's new? No district, a statewide approach

Steinberg acknowledged that efforts to grow the biotech sector, known in previous iterations as "meds and eds," is not new.

But those early efforts have either focused on real estate or didn't have enough different institutions working together.

He said this campaign is not focused on Providence's Jewelry District – which was unsuccessfully renamed several times to attract tech companies – but should be statewide.

McCready said preventing the state's academic institutions from fighting turf wars is essential to success. Asked whether the rivalry between hospital systems Lifespan and Care New England would pose a problem, he said he didn't think so.

The consultants did not immediately have a goal or metric on which success of the project should be judged.

Lawmakers put $700,000 for life sciences into this year's state budget.

"We need to bring everybody together," Shekarchi said. "If we do, we can nurture this industry and grow this industry. We are talking about jobs, but we are also talking about therapies that can help people."

panderson@providencejournal.com

(401) 277-7384

On Twitter: @PatrickAnderso_

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: RI looking at Massachusets-style biotech hub investment