OPINION: The Importance of Expanding Our Bioscience Industry

I have always maintained a keen interest in science. As an elected official, I often look to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and specifically, to their recent success in the bioscience industry, and consider ways in which Connecticut can adopt some of their strategies. In 2008, the Massachusetts legislature launched a 10-year, $1 billion strategy to develop and sustain the state’s bioscience industry and support the academic institutions that conduct bioscience research since then; it’s safe to say that their bioscience industry and the economy has flourished.

As Ranking Member of the legislature’s Commerce Committee, I now have a greater opportunity to help foster a better economy in Connecticut, and I believe that Connecticut’s bioscience industry is an untapped asset that can allow for our state to flourish too.

The bioscience industry consists of companies that use the knowledge gained from studying plants, animals, and humans to develop products and provide services, such as laboratory testing, which leads to better healthcare and cures.

Bioscience is the key to so many achievements in our rapidly changing world such as better health coverage, cures for rare diseases, preventative medicines and even jobs. Also, the bioscience industry provides funds and tax credits for developing infrastructure and facilities, acquiring machines and equipment, starting or expanding new businesses, and even hiring college interns.

Several things have to happen to sustain a state’s bioscience industry. These include colleges and universities investing in bioscience-related research and development, students graduating with degrees in bioscience fields, private venture capitalists investing in new bioscience businesses, and the ability of bioscience companies to obtain patents. A state’s capacity to sustain new bioscience businesses also depends on the extent to which venture capitalists invest in newly formed companies. With this said, I believe that with a greater emphasis placed on increased conversation about creating policies to attract bioscience companies, Connecticut could very well become a leader in the bioscience industry.

Connecticut’s research, testing and medical laboratory jobs are high-paying and long-lasting. It is my hope to increase Connecticut’s bioscience industry presence, which will increase the number of these jobs and in turn will attract people of all ages and families to work and live in Connecticut.

Currently, New Haven County has a strong bioscience base with Yale, Southern Connecticut State University, Quinnipiac University, University of New Haven, Alexion in New Haven and Mount Sinai in Branford. We need to invest in these resources and continue to expand. Similar to any business sector, the bioscience industry affects job levels in other sectors. If Connecticut invests in bioscience, the impacts will seep into our economy as a whole.

President Kennedy once said: “We choose to go to the Moon! We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win ….”

Let us not be discouraged from trying to become a bioscience leader. In many peoples’ minds, this is a hard hill to climb, but it’s a hill that is worth climbing. As President Kennedy said, “We choose to go to the moon.” Let’s work to achieve a better Connecticut and do so creatively and with ingenuity rather than the go-to option of tax increases.