I keep forgetting to take it:
"Patrick is chief salesman at BIO; Still pitching, seven years after his $1b initiative" by Priyanka Dayal McCluskey | Globe Staff June 28, 2014
SAN DIEGO — Richard Lin booked a meeting with Massachusetts officials this week at the BIO International Convention here, bringing a list of questions about expanding his small company, a biotechnology lab operator, into the Boston area.
He hoped for a warm welcome. He wanted to be wooed. But he never expected to be welcomed and wooed by the governor of Massachusetts, who sat next to him during the 20-minute discussion, pitching the state and answering his questions.
“Frankly, it was a big surprise he was here,” said Lin, chief executive of Explora Biolabs of San Diego. “That means a lot. It helps me to see people in charge’s commitment to our industry.”
Governor Deval Patrick made his last sales call this week on the BIO convention, the biotechnology industry’s biggest gathering, and an event that has become entwined with his signature economic development initiative — and legacy.
Uh-oh.
Seven years ago at BIO he unveiled his $1 billion program to grow the state’s life sciences industry, and he has returned almost every year to sell the Commonwealth to companies large and small.
Related:
"The grants are part of the state’s 10-year, $1 billion Life Sciences Initiative, which provides public funding to boost the life sciences industry.... at the cost of adding to the more than $1.8 billion state taxpayers pay annually for debt service."
Ju$t thought you might like to know. Add it to the lengthy list of failures regarding his legacy. Please don't make me start listing them.
And let's $ee, over 12 months and given the rate of payments are not higher now years later, that is at lea$t $150 MILLION each MONTH as the state and federal governments scramble to find more fees to impose and taxes to levy while cutting services during an alleged recovery when the services are needed more than ever.
I better take a pill and calm down.
As Patrick prepares to leave office at the end of the year, Massachusetts can boast what is widely considered the premier life sciences cluster in the world, employing tens of thousands of people and attracting billions of dollars of investment from global pharmaceutical companies, venture capitalists, and the federal government.
That's one way of looking at it.
Patricks’ criticssay his policies have had little to do with this success. With the state’s world-class universities and medical institutions, rich veins of scientific talent, and deep pools of capital, companies would locate and expand here anyway, they say.
Please don't tell me it was wasted tax dollars.
For his part, Patrick steers clear of the word, “legacy.”
I won't, and this is the latest installment.
He says he will leave office knowing his administration made an impact on the life sciences industry — thanks partly to his sales job.
Hey, you know, I'm glad someone made off with some tax loot.
“I could fairly be issued my own set of pom poms,” he quipped.
He's an arrogant little piece of constipation, isn't he?
Patrick moved through the bustling San Diego Convention Center this week, talking up Massachusetts at every opportunity — speaking on a panel, circulating at social events, and meeting with executives.
I sure as hell hope he didn't fly out there, what with the greenhouse gas problem and all.
A handful of governors attend BIO each year — the governors of California, Virginia, and South Dakota also came this year — but not all get involved at the level Patrick does, engaging in the granular details, and for so many consecutive years.
Patrick only missed one BIO convention as governor, in 2010, when a catastrophic water main break cut off clean drinking water to about 2 million people in Greater Boston.
I could probably look up a link, but why bother?
On Wednesday, Patrick spent two hours at a couple of small tables, alongside other Massachusetts officials, meeting with executives from half a dozen research and development companies considering opening offices in Massachusetts. As he listened to them describe their business models, markets, and concerns, every request was on the table.
Fly to Shanghai? Sure. Host company executives visiting Massachusetts? No problem. Come to a ribbon cutting? Absolutely.
Yeah, so much for that global-warming garbage or whatever. Their $hit don't stank.
****************
Like any good salesman, Patrick has a well-honed pitch.
Look at the pile of tax money I have here, just waiting to be handed out!
He ticks through the state’s assets: the strong schools, educated workforce, many universities and research institutions, and growing tech and biotech industries that helped the state out of recession.
In his world, that is what he $ees.
Patrick has taken that message not only across the United States, but around the globe. He has led trade missions to more than a dozen countries, returning just three weeks ago from Israel and the United Arab Emirates.
Oh, I'm fed up, folks!
Also see: Mass. expanding ties to United Arab Emirates
Terrorists with a direct flight after they already heave a ship on the way?
Of course, we all know this is all about the elite, paper being written of and for them, there is no real terror threat when they always turn out to be inside job false flags or FBI-instigated patsy plots with stupid cutouts getting set up.
I'm not complaining; just recognizing it for what t'is.
Earlier trips took him to China, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Britain, Ireland, Canada, Mexico, Panama, Colombia, Chile, and Brazil.
“The reason I travel is we’ve got to look out — that’s where our markets are,” Patrick said. “Everybody talks about the global economy, but if you don’t go out, engage, you’re not going to win. You’ve got to play to win.”
The "play" talk regarding things that deeply effect peoples lives -- like that murderous meningitis crisis -- is just starting to bug me. It's not him per se, it's the whole cla$$ of which he is a part and the way it is transmitted by the fawning mouthpiece of corporate liberali$m we call a flag$hit of the region.
I gue$$ that's why I'm reading less and less of it every day.
The governor’s overseas trips have provided fodder for his critics. Massachusetts Republicans say he should spend more time in the state and less taxpayer money on foreign trips.
You mean, like Romney? Democrats bellyaching back then, if I recall (I do).
But Kristen Rupert, executive director of Associated Industries of Massachusetts International Business Council, an arm of the state’s biggest employer group, said his approach has helped Massachusetts businesses.
Well, certain $ectors and certain intere$ts, yeah.
“A governor has the ability to open doors overseas that a company, acting on its own, often cannot open,” Rupert said. “We saw that happen in Mexico and Israel, where [Massachusetts] organizations that had been attempting to make headway in those countries suddenly secured meetings after Governor Patrick met with government officials.”
Though Patrick says his travel schedule is demanding, he seems to enjoy himself. He chatted affably with other officials and executives Wednesday, snacking on warm chocolate chip cookies during a break. He obliged when passersby asked to snap photos with him....
Where is the bathroom?
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So it is bigger than the JP Morgan shindig?
Back to the party:
"BIO convention kicks off with cocktails on aircraft carrier" by Priyanka Dayal McCluskey | Globe Staff June 27, 2014
SAN DIEGO — What do biotech folks do when they’re not discovering, discussing, and selling treatments for debilitating diseases? They watch the World Cup. They have lunch with Hillary Rodham Clinton. They get business advice from British billionaire Richard Branson. They drink cocktails on an aircraft carrier.
The one that is still stuck in port?
I said this paper is no longer for me, and it is not in so many ways. I need to reverse course and go in the oppo$ite direction.
Some 15,000 scientists, executives, public officials, and others involved in the world of life sciences and biotechnology descended on San Diego this week for the annual BIO International Convention. But along with all the business taking place, conference organizers mixed in some pleasure.
The conference kicked off Monday with a lavish party aboard the USS Midway, a massive aircraft carrier anchored in the downtown. There were jugglers, dancers, an open bar, and fireworks over the bay, all sponsored by the state of Georgia.
Did they have a winged woman dressed in a sequin top and bikini bottom playing a see-through violin from a balcony perch?
At the convention center later, between meetings, soccer fans stopped by the World Cup lounge to watch their teams compete.
Oh, I'm glad they didn't miss a game. I will be today. The fun round is over.
Keynote speakers at the convention included Virgin Group founder Branson, who started his talk by admonishing the men in the audience for wearing neckties and immediately cutting the tie off his host, BIO chief executive James Greenwood; and Clinton, the former senator and secretary of state, who was less eccentric but received bigger ovations as she promoted her book and discussed public policy.
That's the only place because it's been a full retreat otherwise.
Also see:
Hillary Clinton’s wealth becoming political question
Clinton defends wife on wealth comments
Hill $till got 'em by the balls.
Big drug developers, including AbbVie and Johnson & Johnson, sought to draw visitors to their booths with free lattes and cappuccinos. Merck had one of the most popular attractions, a soft-serve frozen yogurt machine.
Various states and countries tried to bring their local flavor to the convention. Massachusetts hosted a reception with Sam Adams beer and bacon-wrapped scallops.
Yeah, promote the alcohol while the sick suffer.
And even though San Diego is a coastal city, the team from Massachusetts wasn’t taking any chances with Pacific seafood. These scallops were flown in from Massachusetts.
Yeah, I'll bet they were not, not with 300 tons of radiated water being dumped into it the last 3+ years at Fukushima.
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Look, I'm not begrudging them a fine meal at all; I'm just outraged that the political nobility and the lords they $erve $tuff themselves full when so many in America hunger or starve.
"Boom underway as biotech industry kicks off convention" by Priyanka Dayal McCluskey | Globe Staff June 24, 2014
SAN DIEGO — These are good times for the biotechnology industry.
Then what do they need with hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer funds?
The outlook has never appeared brighter as sales grow, new drugs hit the market, and many promising treatments move through the development pipeline, according to analysts, investors, and biotech company officials.
All by keeping you groggy!
The industry is gathering in Southern California this week for its annual convention with a boom underway and the Boston-Cambridge cluster — a global hub for research and development — at the center of it.
It's the Hub of AmeriKa.
******************
Eric Schmidt, a biotech analyst at Cowen Group, a New York financial services firm, said, “The financial markets have opened up. Capital has poured into the industry. There’s no reason to be anything but optimistic for the industry.”
A report released Tuesday by the Big Four accounting firm Ernst & Young shows that biotech revenues grew 10 percent last year, to just under $100 billion. Research and development spending grew 14 percent worldwide and even faster, 20 percent, in the United States.
A separate analysis from Burrill and Co., a San Francisco financial services firm, shows how bullish investors have been. Over the past year, 123 biotech firms launched initial public offerings, raising about $9 billion, the most ever in a 12-month period, according to Burrill.
That is how I began yesterday.
The money being tossed about while so many in this nation and world suffer is offensive to me. Sorry.
“We’re starting to see drugs hitting early and mid-to-late-stage clinical trial pipelines that are showing jaw-dropping results,” said Kevin Starr, a partner at Third Rock Ventures, a venture capital firm in Boston that invests in biotechs. “It is the greatest I’ve ever seen in the last 25 years in terms of translation into real results.”
New England companies are responsible for 17 percent of biopharmaceutical drugs in development, more than those form any other US region, the Ernst and Young report said. Biotechs in the Boston-Cambridge area have in the past couple of years surpassed San Francisco Bay area companies in raising capital, said Glen Giovannetti, Ernst and Young’s global life sciences leader.
“The concentration of research and development has just exploded here,” he said. “Life sciences is such an important part of the whole ecosystem and the economy, it’s really unique.”
He means $y$tem, but $ame thing.
Biotechnology is still a complex and risky industry, one in which companies can spend many years and millions of dollars on research that may never yield a successful drug.
Oh, I'm glad he BORROWED a BILLION BUCKS out of the TAXPAYER'S WALLET for it!
The industry also faces pressure under national health care reform to control prescription drug costs, which threatens to cut into profits.
Am I the only one thinking that the Affordable Care Act is going to be anything but?
Just take less coverage and higher deductibles. It's the healthie$t thing to do.
Some analysts have questioned whether this boom is really a bubble as the values of biotech stocks soar.
Again? Another artificially-created Fed inflation? Great!
A few big companies have led the industry’s growth....
Like the Wall Street banks that gobble up most of the banking profits every quarter.
"Results of a clinical trial released Tuesday showed a combination of two cystic fibrosis drugs developed by Boston’s Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. helped people with the deadly disease breathe more easily, raising hopes the treatment could be on the market by late next year and sending the company’s stock soaring."
I don't remember the last time I proffered a Vertex post and really don't care at this point. This party $ucks.
The boom times are expected to continue. A forecast from analysts at EvaluatePharma set to be released Tuesday expects total prescription drug sales to grow more than 5 percent annually until 2020, when they cross the $1 trillion mark.
That's a mighty big pill to swallow.
Biotech drugs are expected to make up 27 percent of all drug sales by the end of the decade, up from 23 percent now. Big pharmaceutical companies that make drugs from synthetic materials — a less costly and complex process than producing drugs from biological material — have been buying up biotechs to fill their pipelines.
They end in waiting throats, you knew that, right? Or veins, too, I suppose.
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Oh, and after the effect$ wears off.... ??
"Study faults life sciences initiative; Calls job gains modest, state’s focus too narrow" by Robert Weisman and Priyanka Dayal McCluskey | Globe Staff June 23, 2014
A report released Monday suggests job growth in biotech and medical technology, a top focus of the Patrick Administration, has been modest at best over the past five years and has come at the expense of other research and development industries.
The study, prepared by the Pioneer Institute, a nonpartisan but fiscally conservative research group, challenges findings by other researchers and claims by the Patrick administration’s that its 10-year, $1 billion life sciences initiative has fueled a key sector of the state’s economy.
That must di$credit it in the Globe's eyes!
Instead, the Pioneer report says, the state created just 571 direct jobs in life sciences industries from its launch in 2009 through the third quarter of last year, the most recent period for which data is available.
“What we’re saying is this approach of targeted incentives to companies, of a state agency picking winners and losers, has not worked. It has not created many jobs,” said Gregory W. Sullivan, research director at the Pioneer Institute and the former Massachusetts inspector general.
He said other states have used similar incentives more effectively, especially California, where the public subsidies have been more aggressive and broader based.
The report’s conclusion appears at odds with the findings of several other state and industry studies, including one released just last week by economists at Northeastern University who used a more expansive definition of the life sciences sector....
I don't want any more $elf-$erving studies being cited by my pre$$, sorry -- especially when there is already a record out there and if anything it has gotten worse since.
But you can't challenge conventional myth and belief in failed $y$tems! That's here$y!
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As the foreign firms infest Bo$ton for their share of the loot:
"Foreign companies employ 143,000 Bostonians, says report" by Jack Newsham | Globe Correspondent June 20, 2014
Greater Boston, a home away from home for companies such as the Swiss drug maker Novartis and the Dutch conglomerate Philips, ranks among the nation’s leading targets for foreign investment, according to a new study.
Foreign companies employ 143,000 people in Greater Boston, the fifth highest among the top 100 US metropolitan areas, according to the study by the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. Over the past two decades, the number of employees working for international firms has nearly doubled from about 75,000.
That is one thing I will give the Globe: they really do make you think.
The increase has been driven by a rush of acquisitions in the 1990s and continued investment by foreign companies through the next decade. Foreign businesses now employ 6.7 percent of Boston’s private sector workers, compared with 4.2 percent in 1991.
Grocery stores were responsible for the largest share of employment by foreign companies in the United States and in Boston, with 288,000 people across the country and 15,500 in Boston. They work for companies like Aldi, the German supermarket chain that owns Trader Joe’s, and Ahold, the Dutch owner of Stop & Shop.
That reminds me; lunch is coming up soon.
Computer systems design and drug manufacturing, both major industries in the Boston metropolitan area, were also among the top 10 sectors nationally for foreign investment.
“Jobs in foreign-owned businesses tend to concentrate on the East Coast to a much greater extent than in other parts of the country,” said Nick Marchio, a researcher at the Brookings Institution, who coauthored the study.
He added that European firms — like Sanofi, the French drug company that owns Cambridge-based Genzyme, and Novartis, which has labs in Cambridge — may be more familiar with the business environment of the East Coast because they are closer to it, although their motivations were not the subject of the study.
The study, which Marchio said took eight months to complete, tracked employment from 1991 until 2011. Today, almost 2,700 foreign-owned businesses have a presence in Boston.
The Netherlands is the biggest foreign employer, with its companies accounting for about 15 percent of jobs a foreign firms. The global headquarters for the Dutch conglomerate Philips’s medical device unit, Philips Healthcare, is located in Andover, where the company employs about 2,500. Overall, Philips Healthcare employs about 3,500 in Massachusetts.
“Boston has everything to offer when you want to be a player in fields like life sciences,” said Rob de Vos, the Dutch consul general in New York. He added that Massachusetts was the fourth-most popular American destination for Dutch companies, with institutions like Harvard and MIT serving as powerful magnets for businesses.
Besides tracking the job impact of foreign investment, the report urges policy makers to tap into their existing economic strengths, such as Massachusetts’ life sciences industry, to draw foreign investment to their states and regions. The report also praises Massachusetts for its efforts to draw Israeli companies to the state, noting that Israeli investment in the United States rose 79 percent from 2006 to 2011.
Related: "An Israeli company called Ornim Medical, which makes noninvasive blood-flow monitors, said it will open a US headquarters in Foxborough."
Governor Deval Patrick has led two trade missions to Israel in recent years....
Yeah, I know this state is being lashed ever closer to those pariahs. They obviously control our politicians because the people in this state, for the most part, vociferously oppose Israeli policy.
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Also see: Most of the benefits of the economic recovery have been concentrated in Greater Boston
We know where and to whom.
