May 6, 2008 Shire pharmaceutical to create 680 new jobs Play video

(Peter Howe, NECN: Lexington, Mass.) - A big day for life sciences in Massachusetts. Promising new job projections, and a groundbreaking for a major new life sciences campus on Route 128.

NECN’s Peter Howe has details.

Script:

Shire, the British biopharmaceutical giant, officially kicked off construction Tuesday at its new research and manufacturing campus. It's projected to create 680 new jobs over the next 8 years and 8,000 other life sciences jobs are coming to Massachusetts, according to new projections from U. Mass researchers.

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick brought the official gubernatorial shovel to Lexington, Massachusetts. Marking the start of a major life sciences campus on the Route 128 high tech belt, Shire's human genetic therapies unit is building a research and manufacturing plant here.

Three years ago, Shire bought Transkaryotic Therapies in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Now, Shire employs 850 people in the Bay State. The new campus adds 680 more jobs. State and town officials put in $40 million dollars in tax breaks and incentives.

For now, the state looks to be succeeding, big time. The Donahue Institute at the University of Massachusetts reports the life sciences cluster -- including biotech, medical devices, and pharmaceuticals -- is the state's biggest export industry. It sold $7.5 billion dollars worth of goods abroad in 2006, well ahead of high tech electrical and industrial machinery as an income source

And in coming years, life sciences could add jobs twice as fast as the state's economy generally. Over 9,000 new jobs in the next 6 years. Patrick is now pushing a billion-dollar life sciences bond bill to keep the companies here, preventing other states from stealing the jobs, and he hopes to make those new job numbers even bigger.

Governor Patrick says he's optimistic legislators will move on the billion dollar life sciences bill the week of May 19 and get it passed in time for a major bio conference in San Diego in June.