Two hundred and fifty years ago today, on July 3, 1775, George Washington took command of the Continental Army on Cambridge Common, just two miles from Kendall Square. Cambridge played a crucial role in the American Revolution, which sought to secure the rights of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Today, Cambridge and the surrounding communities are on the frontiers of biomedical revolutions, hoping to deliver the same to patients around the world.
In the wake of the BIO International Convention in Boston last month and the unprecedented past few months in Washington, I feel led to reflect on how we as an industry can lean into the values of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, which have such a prominent place in our nation’s history.
Securing Life: Innovation for Patients
Patients are why biotechnology exists. MassBio’s member companies are working to improve and extend human life by developing therapies and curing diseases. They are offering hope to patients who have nowhere else to turn.
Sometimes, we can take life for granted, but all you have to do is hear from one patient who is fighting cancer with every bit of strength they have, like my friend Christine, to see how precious it truly is. At State of Possible, we heard from the Lanes and saw their son Swaggy strut up on stage and show that his life is not defined by his condition.
Pete Frates may have lost his battle with ALS, but the way that he lived his life after his diagnosis demonstrated an embrace of mission and a commitment to starting a revolution in the field of ALS research. He took up arms, through the viral ice bucket challenge, to fight the status quo through awareness and dollars. His legacy lives on in the work taking place on both sides of the Charles River that Paul Revere rowed across before his famous ride.
Liberty Through Health: Empowering Patients
The patriots of the Boston Tea Party and the Battle of Bunker Hill believed that people had an inalienable right to liberty. Patients with an unmet medical need are seeking the freedom that comes from better health outcomes—freedom from illness, dependency, or chronic suffering.
We listened to Lee Greenwood speak on the stage of the Massachusetts Pavilion at BIO, describing the agonizing journey to their daughter’s diagnosis with Canavan Disease. But then we saw photos and videos of the liberty she now has to be a child who can walk, laugh, and go to school. It is an investigational gene therapy that has jump-started her development and given her the independence that kids her age crave.
In June, I was at a Boston Red Sox game where 67-year-old Tim Andrews threw out the ceremonial first pitch. His liberty came in the form of having been free of dialysis for nearly five months after receiving a genetically edited pig kidney in January. This was made possible thanks to the doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital spital and innovators at eGenesis, Inc., a biotech in Cambridge.
The Pursuit of Happiness: Hope Through Science
What is happening in labs across Massachusetts is enabling patients and their families to imagine a future that seemed out of reach. While biotech once avoided using the word ‘cure’ because it was aspirational and could be seen as creating false hope, that is no longer the case because of the advances in cell and gene therapies.
For those working in biotech, this is the pursuit of happiness that gets them out of bed every morning. For those with a rare disease, this is the pursuit of happiness that they look to biotech to help them achieve. Every breakthrough is more than a headline; it’s a story of renewed hope.
It’s here that I’m tempted to bring in policy and politics. To advocate for keeping American independence of thought around discovery, research, and development. To champion American innovation over that of our adversaries and push for more manufacturing to happen in these United States. But I will save that for another post, saying only that embracing and supporting biotech innovation is very much aligned with our nation’s founding values.
This is the place.
In the spring, we launched our “This is the place.” awareness campaign. The launch video starts with Paul Revere riding a galloping horse and the Old North Church lit with lanterns to send him a message. The narrator proclaims, “Revolutions create change. Resistance ignites innovation. For 250 years, Massachusetts has led the way.”
As you watch fireworks and parades this weekend, let them remind you of our commitment as the Massachusetts biotech cluster to creating independence days for patients everywhere.