W
hile there were
certainly some latent
factors that favored
the creation of a large
life sciences industry
in Worcester in the
late 20th century, the
outcome was far from foreordained.
e creation of the UMass Chan Medical School
began with 1962 state legislation aimed at creat-
ing an "affordable" medical college. It helped put
Worcester 'on the map' in the life sciences.
While UMass didn't accept its first students in
Worcester until the 1970s, growth came rapidly
thereaer with opening of an on-campus hospital
a few years later followed by opening of the Grad-
uate School of Biomedical Sciences in 1979, and
the Graduate School of Nursing in 1986 (a move
Major life sciences players
made the city their home
that led Boston University to close its own nursing
school); and finally, a merger with Memorial Health
Care in 1998 to form UMass Memorial Health Care.
e 1965 launch of Worcester Business Devel-
opment Corp., under the auspices of the Greater
Worcester Chamber of Commerce, created a
unique non-profit that could focus on a fresh ap-
proach to economic development.
Economic troubles in the state and region in the
1970s helped get everyone focused. Dr. Abra-
ham W. Haddad recalls being asked to chair a
long-range planning effort in 1981. "We did due
diligence on the future of the manufacturing econ-
omy and even the computer companies of the time
like Prime, and we foresaw that they would likely
be gone by the 1990s," he says. But biotech, then
a barely-known term, seemed revolutionary and
poised for growth.
The creation
of the UMass
Chan Medical
School began
with 1962 state
legislation aimed
at developing
an affordable
medical college.
It helped put
Worcester on the
map in the life
sciences.
1922-2021
46 W o r c e s t e r 3 0 0 : C i t y o f I n n o v a t o r s
Abbvie headquarters, the
birthplace of blockbuster
drug Humira
PHOTO | GRANT WELKER
