The 2025 MassBio Policy Leadership Breakfast, held for the first time at the UMass Club in Boston on January 29, was a powerful reminder of biotechnology’s life-changing impact on patients. The event brought together state legislators, the Healey-Driscoll administration, and key players from across the Massachusetts’ biotech ecosystem to connect public policy with the undeniable benefits biotechnology brings to the Commonwealth and to patients worldwide.
One central theme emerged from the discussions, echoed in the closing words of keynote speaker John F. Crowley: “Biotechnology is just a big word for hope.”
Crowley, president and CEO of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), was invited to present keynote remarks to Massachusetts policymakers this year based on his lived experience bridging the gap between the business of biotech and its ultimate impact on human lives. Drawing from the Pompe disease diagnosis that his two young children received in 1998, Crowley conveyed understanding as a father and a biotech entrepreneur while walking the policy crowd through his journey of obtaining a home equity loan and securing funding from “prestigious venture capital firms Visa and Mastercard” on his way to founding the company to develop the enzyme replacement therapy that enhanced and ultimately saved his children’s lives.
Throughout his retelling, Crowley emphasized the importance of sound policymaking to sustain biotechs of all sizes so they can continue to seek life-saving therapies. Because not all stories end like his, and there are countless patients out there still living on hope.
The morning’s subsequent panel discussion, covering the last two decades of the Commonwealth’s biotech ecosystem, deepened the conversation, most especially when Maggie O’Toole, COO of LabCentral, noted, “If LabCentral had been around at that time, [John Crowley] probably would not have had to jeopardize the equity of his house. You can come into LabCentral and start a company. And that’s something that was unheard of.”
Moderated by former MassBio CEO Bob Coughlin, the panel also featured leaders from HC Bioscience and the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (MLSC) to discuss the impacts of the last three Life Sciences Initiatives (LSI) in Massachusetts. Each underscored how the government support exemplified by the LSI – a series of public-private partnerships driving targeted investments in innovation, job creation, and economic development – propelled Massachusetts into the number one spot for global biotech innovation.
Dr. Kirk Taylor, MLSC’s new leader, highlighted the importance of these initiatives in attracting new companies and vibrancy to communities across Massachusetts, “[LSI] is not only focused on economic development, but on job creation, on, really improving lives. It’s not just geographic expansion, but it’s really access to the kid living in Springfield. Worcester. Watertown, but also Roxbury.”
Leslie Williams, President and CEO of HC Bioscience, Inc., highlighted how such public support and collaboration are vital for both innovation and creating a sustainable industry, “We did leverage the incubator labs and we did leverage the talent pool and the training that is offered by the Life Sciences Center. I’ve seen it evolve and grow, and the support continue to make revolutionary technologies possible and expedite the treatments for many of these diseases, for which there are no treatment options, which is what we’re doing at H.C. Bioscience.”
Throughout the event, every speaker highlighted biotechnology’s profound economic and societal value—job creation, improved public health, and greater access to groundbreaking therapies. But the most powerful takeaway was the human connection behind it all. Biotechnology, at its heart, is about offering hope, saving lives, and finding solutions to seemingly insurmountable challenges.
The morning concluded with the presentation of the 2024 MassBio Legislator of the Year Award to Representative Carole Fiola (D – Fall River) for her advocacy of women’s health and support for policies that sustain the life sciences sector. Representative Fiola’s remarks reinforced the event’s core message: the science and technology being advanced in Massachusetts isn’t just about economics; it’s about making a meaningful difference in people’s lives.
Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll stressed that biotechnology thrives through a public-private partnership crucial to the state’s growth. “It’s because of your research, your products, your discoveries that Massachusetts is that global hub for life sciences. As Kendalle has mentioned, for innovation, the number one state for health care and the number one state for research investment. Both the governor and myself personally are committed to helping grow and foster what you do.”
The morning event held high above Beacon Hill reminded all attendees that biotechnology is not just a field of science or a source of economic prosperity. It is a movement of hope. MassBio CEO and President Kendalle Burlin O’Connell set this tone when she opened the event by emphasizing the critical role everyone—lawmakers, staffers, company leaders, and researchers—plays in advancing patient hope through life sciences in Massachusetts.
Biotechnology represents the potential for cures, breakthroughs, and a future where every patient, regardless of their condition, has hope for tomorrow. And that hope doesn’t materialize by accident. It takes the collaborative effort of researchers, policymakers, and industry leaders who understand that biotechnology, in all its complexity, is ultimately about people.
With the right investments, policies, and partnerships, Massachusetts can continue to lead in innovation and help evolve the word “biotechnology” from a term in a statewide funding bill to a source of hope for patients around the world.
Photos from the Breakfast
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