Worcester Business Journal

18 Worcester Business Journal | April 15, 2024 | wbjournal.com Helping life sciences startups González credits MBI with affording her a financially feasible way to launch her own startup by offering her lower rent in Worcester, an area she said is ideal for budding businesses and estab- lished companies looking to expand. e availability of physical space to turn research into manufacturing facilities distinguishes Central Mass. from other tech-heavy hubs of the state, such as Boston and Cambridge, she said. "ere's a huge value proposition to being 50 minutes away from your R&D headquarters. e ability to just be able to drive out when you find an issue and get back by lunch is massive," said Weaver. Coming out of those metropolitan hubs, Weaver said, are thousands of drugs needing to go through thorough testing, another area in which he said the Leads Act is taking a thoughtful approach. As opposed to financing development of core AI, Weaver said the bill is looking to fund ways to apply existing AI to different industries, with a $100-million applied AI hub capital program. "A big part of why drugs are so ex- pensive is because in order to figure out that one drug, they have to go in a lab and they have to test 50 different, 100 different, possibilities before they define the one methodology that really makes the most sense," said Weaver. "AI has the potential transformative impact to be able to say, instead of having to try it a hundred times, through AI, we might be able to say these are the five we should try; and that can really reduce the cost of drug development and really expedite how we can bring products to patients." Using funding to implement AI in this way has the potential to transfigure the U.S. Food & Drug Administration approval process and, in turn, have a remarkable impact on the price of pre- scription drugs, Weaver said. Economic impact e Leads Act will help Central Massachusetts communities attract more companies, said Meredith Harris, executive director of the Marlborough Economic Devel- opment Corp. "What we do everyday is try to attract and retain business to the community, and the Leads Act just seems to continue to enable that and gives us more tools in our tool box when we're out trying to attract compa- nies to Central Mass. and specifically to Marlborough," Harris said. Public money invested into attracting these businesses tends to be returned many times over in economic activity, she said. "e investment that these compa- nies, the life sciences in particular, the investment they make in their property and in their space is significant," said Harris. "So that's all revenue coming back to the communities that they choose to be a part of. And then all the people that they bring in every day that are eating in our restaurants, getting gas on their way out the door, sleeping in our hotels, all of that stuff helps support the local economy." e reauthorization of the Life Science Initiative and funding for small businesses, which includes the bill's recommended $25 million for small business technology grants, is a high- light of the effort, she said. e bill's investments are investments into jobs and the future of Massachu- setts' economy, Weaver said, which directly translates to tax revenue. Other states such as Rhode Island, Texas, and Georgia are developing similar plans to the Mass Leads Act and have benefited from seeing the type of economic and workforce success that the state has had implementing these kinds of initiatives over the years, he said. "To think that we can have that same type of effect for the next 10 years based on an investment like this, I just think is amazing," Weaver said. F O C U S H E A L T H C A R E & L I F E S C I E N C E S W Exceptional Care – For Families and Community. For Family & Community notredame healthcare.org • Assisted Living Residence • Skilled Nursing Facility • Residential Memory Care • Short Term Rehabilitation • Adult & Pediatric Hospice • Pediatric Palliative Care • Educational Resource Center • Spiritual Care 555-559 Plantation Street Worcester, MA 01605 (508) 470-0065 Contact us to learn more about the mission-driven, not-for-profit difference at Notre Dame Health Care. Notre Dame Health Care Meredith Harris, MEDC executive director Continued from previous page Mass Leads Act funding Gov. Maura Healey's economic development proposal Mass Leads Act includes $1 billion each in funding and incentives toward life sciences and climatetech initiatives. Life sciences Climatetech Capital $500 million Capital $400 million Tax incentives $350 million Tax incentives $300 million Operating $150 million Operating $300 million Source: Gov. Maura Healey Administration

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