Category: Massachusetts
Council will advise the president on ways to foster entrepreneurship and transform laboratory ideas into new businesses and jobs
ANN ARBOR, Mich. – U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke today announced the members of the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship, a group that will support President Obama's innovation strategy by helping to develop policies that foster entrepreneurship and identifying new ways to take great ideas from the lab to the marketplace to drive economic growth and create jobs. Locke made the announcement at a U.S. Department of Commerce University Innovation Forum at the University of Michigan, where participants discussed the role of universities in innovation, economic development, job creation and commercialization of federally funded research.
The National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship will help build on this aggressive agenda. Members of the council include serial entrepreneurs, university presidents, investors and non-profit leaders. Steve Case, Mary Sue Coleman, and Desh Deshpande will serve as Co-Chairs. See the full list of council members below.
Participation comes from academic institutions and companies across the state
Waltham, Massachusetts - The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center’s 2010 Internship Challenge has received an overwhelming response since its February launch, with nearly 900 applicants seeking internships this summer. Over 130 companies from all sectors of the life sciences community have combed through hundreds of resumes, held numerous interviews, and selected interns to hire. Through the Challenge, 164 interns have been matched with 93 life sciences companies, a more than 50% increase from the 104 interns selected in 2009.
The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center’s Internship Challenge is a workforce development program focused on enhancing the talent pipeline for life sciences companies in Massachusetts while providing interns with practical, “hands on” experience that prepares them to step into the workforce ready to meet the job requirements of life sciences employers. The program is providing paid summer internships to undergraduates, graduate students, and recent college graduates from 46 different colleges and universities.
Center will provide $2.48 million to support four early-stage life sciences companies
Waltham, MA – The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (the “Center”), a quasi-public agency tasked with implementing the state’s ten-year, $1 billion Life Sciences Initiative, today announced the awarding of $2.48 million in loans to four early-stage life sciences companies. The Center’s Accelerator Program provides loans of up to $750,000 to early-stage companies engaged in life sciences research and development, commercialization and manufacturing. The Center’s Board of Directors approved the first round of 2010 Accelerator loans today. Four companies were authorized to receive loans out of thirty-nine applications that were submitted to the Center and competitively peer-reviewed. A second round of the Program is scheduled for the Fall of 2010.
At two-year mark, state’s Life Sciences Initiative provides strong return on investment
Waltham, MA – The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center is providing a $50,000 grant to the Massachusetts Life Sciences Collaborative to support an initiative aimed at strengthening the state’s biomanufacturing sector through a Massachusetts Biomanufacturing Roundtable and the development of a comprehensive Biomanufacturing action agenda during the 2010 calendar year. The Biomanufacturing Roundtable includes participation from influential life sciences, biomanufacturing, academic, and government leaders, including Massachusetts Life Sciences Center President & CEO, Dr. Susan Windham-Bannister. The Roundtable is co-chaired by Taligen Therapeutics CEO Abbie Celniker, Acceleron Pharma Senior Vice President of Manufacturing Bob Steininger, and former Pfizer Vice President Mickey Koplove.
Application period opens on June 21st
Contact: Angus G. McQuilken, MLSC VP for Communications
Boston, MA – Governor Patrick, the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, MassBio and MassMEDIC today urged qualifying companies to apply for the Therapeutic Discovery Tax Credit, a new federal program created under the Affordable Care Act to support biomedical research. Qualifying companies may apply to the new federal program starting on Monday, June 21, 2010 with applications due by July 21, 2010. Applicants will receive a determination no later than October 29, 2010. More information is available on the web site of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, www.masslifescience.com.
Massachusetts Life Sciences Center co-sponsors contest and contributes to prize
Cambridge, MA - Aukera Therapeutics has been named the 2010 MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition Life Sciences Track Winner. Aukera also won the Audience Choice Award, based on voting by the 1,000 attendees at the Competition’s finale. The company will receive $30,000 in start-up funding from the competition. Also receiving awards were runner-up Invitronix ($5,000) and second runner-up Hydrangle Systems ($3,000). The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, the agency charged with implementing the State’s 10-year, $1 billion Life Sciences Initiative, contributed $10,000 to support the life sciences track. The Cambridge Innovation Center will be providing the finalists with in-kind support, including workspace.
Center Awards $1.5 million to foster job growth and technology commercialization in the Massachusetts Life Sciences Supercluster
For Immediate Release: Date: May 28, 2010
Contact: Angus G. McQuilken, MLSC VP for Communications
Phone: (617) 921-7749 Email: amcquilken@masslifesciences.com
“This is all about jobs. By helping life sciences companies grow, we create new opportunities for people to work,” said Governor Deval Patrick. “As we continue to strengthen our global leadership in the life sciences, this program will meet an important need and make Massachusetts an even more attractive place for life sciences companies to locate and grow.”
Waltham, MA – The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center’s Board of Directors today awarded $1.5 million in Small Business Matching Grants to three life sciences companies in Massachusetts. The companies receiving grants are Boston Biochem Inc. and Tetragenetics Inc., both of Cambridge and Thermedical Inc. of Somerville. Each company will receive $500,000 from the Center to match federal small business grant funding that the companies had previously been awarded. The grants represent the first round of awards issued under the Center’s Small Business Matching Grant (SBMG) Program. The three companies that are receiving awards have committed to collectively creating 40 new jobs in the Commonwealth by the end of 2011, including six jobs to be relocated from New York.
The Center’s Small Business Matching Grant Program, launched in January 2010 as part of the state’s ten-year, $1 billion Life Sciences Initiative, will match federal small business grant funding for early-stage life sciences companies engaged in life sciences research and development, commercialization and manufacturing in Massachusetts. Goals of the program include the creation of jobs in Massachusetts by the commercialization of products with high potential for market adoption and penetration.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT Juan Martinez
Tuesday, May 25, 2010 Kim Haberlin
Heather Johnson
Caitlin Coyle
617-725-4025
Discuss area job growth under state's ten-year, $1 billion Life Sciences Initiative. 64% of dollars invested thus far have been in Central Massachusetts
WORCESTER – Tuesday, May 25, 2010 - Governor Deval Patrick and Susan Windham-Bannister, President & CEO of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, visited Worcester Polytechnic Institute's (WPI) Gateway Park today for a discussion of life sciences job growth in the park and the region. WPI recently received approval for a $6.6 million grant from the Center for Phase II construction at Gateway Park. The Governor met with leaders from WPI, the Massachusetts Academy of Math and Sciences, and Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives (MBI), all of whom have benefitted from the Center's investment. The Governor also met employees of the companies and organizations located in the park, including employees of RXi Pharmaceuticals, a company that is participating in a cooperative research project with UMass Medical School (UMMS) that is funded through the Center's Cooperative Research Matching Grant Program. Both grants were made under the Patrick-Murray Administration's 10-year, $1 billion Life Sciences Initiative.
- Sanofi-aventis Supports Consortium’s Activities to Fund Promising Early-Stage Life Sciences Companies -
Chicago, IL – May 5, 2010 – Sanofi-aventis and the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (MLSC), a quasi-public agency tasked with implementing the State’s ten-year, $1 billion Life Sciences Initiative, announced that sanofi-aventis has joined the Center’s Corporate Consortium Program. The partnership was announced at the BIO International Convention, the largest global event for the biotechnology industry taking place this week in Chicago, Illinois.
Applications due by July 2nd
For immediate release: Date: May 3, 2010
Contact: Angus G. McQuilken, MLSC VP for Communications
Waltham, MA – The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center announced today that applications are now being accepted for the 2010 Life Sciences Tax Incentive Program. Applications can be submitted on-line via the Center’s web site, www.masslifesciences.com. The application period opens today, and all applications are due by noon on July 2, 2010.
Last year, in the program’s first year, the Center awarded $24.5 million in tax incentives to twenty-six life sciences companies. The companies that received tax incentive awards in 2009 committed to creating more than 800 new jobs in the Commonwealth this year.
The Massachusetts Life Sciences Initiative provides for nine different incentives, which address the significant capital expenditures associated with the life sciences R&D cycle and the high costs of translating research into commercially viable products. Eighty-five companies applied for tax incentives last year, the first year of the program.
To qualify, companies must receive certification from the Center and must demonstrate both the scientific and economic merit of their expansion plans. The primary goal of the program is to incentivize life sciences companies to create new long-term jobs in Massachusetts.
