This story was originally published by Axios Boston.
Massachusetts leaders are stepping up their fight to convince the Biden administration to headquarter a pioneering health research agency in the Bay State.
What’s happening: MassBio president Joe Boncore announced Monday the launch of a coalition to campaign to host the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H).
- The Coalition for Health Advances & Research in Massachusetts (CHARM), led by a steering committee of 14 business and government entities, is asking the state’s leading health companies and institutions to sign a letter that it will send to President Biden making its pitch to host the new research agency.
- ARPA-H is aimed at making health care breakthroughs, like treatments for Alzheimer’s and diabetes.
Driving the news: The launch comes as Biden visits Boston Monday to deliver his “cancer moonshot” speech at the JFK Library on the 60th anniversary of President Kennedy’s moonshot speech.
Why it matters: The coalition aims to make Massachusetts stand out above all other states vying for the ARPA-H headquarters, an institution that would solidify Greater Boston’s status as one of the world’s premier life sciences hubs.
- The state’s biotech industry exceeds 100,000 workers, more than twice as many as 18 years ago, according to MassBio’s industry snapshot released last month.
- And Massachusetts-based companies captured about one-quarter of all venture capital funding for pharmaceuticals in the U.S. in the first half of the year, per MassBio.
What they’re saying: The president wants to get into the business of fighting the worst diseases, a battle Massachusetts is well suited for, Boncore tells Axios.
- “What Massachusetts is known for is the small innovative companies that are taking on the hardest science and ultimately coming out with cures that will change the course of humanity, change health care and help patients,” he says.
What’s next: The group plans to send its letter to the White House in the coming weeks.
- “We’re going to be working together with government and academia and organizations to ensure that we’re telling the Massachusetts story and putting our best foot forward,” Boncore says.