New England a biotech power against COVID-19

Kendall Square in Cambridge, as seen from across the Charles River in Boston. It’s the epicenter of the New England biotech sector.

From Robert Whitcomb’s “Digital Diary,’’ in GoLocal24.com

The economy may or may not recover soon from the pandemic, but in any case New England’s role as a world center for health-related science will probably continue to grow. Indeed, the search for a vaccine for COVID-19 and new treatments for that and other illnesses, old and new, will tend to accelerate this growth. It’s a bit macabre to say so, but New England’s economy could benefit from COVID-19. Researchers in the region are hard at work trying to develop vaccines and treatments against the disease.

That’s not to minimize the damage done to other important regional sectors, especially higher education, and of course the region’s universities do a great deal of life-sciences research. It’s complicated.

Just look at the plan by life-sciences company IQHQ to buy the 26-acre headquarters  and campus of GCP Applied Technologies, in North Cambridge, Mass., for $125 million.  GCP makes chemicals and construction materials.

The Boston Globe reports that the “once light-industrial area is rapidly transforming into a hub for labs and housing. It’s one of several areas around the region that are drawing tech and life science companies looking for cheaper or roomier alternatives to {Cambridge’s} Kendall Square.’’

To read The Globe’s story, please hit this link.

This is, of course, the sort of business that Rhode Island is trying to get, especially for the land freed up in downtown Providence by the moving of Route 195.