New England business, the life and death sectors
Looking across to Kendall Square, Cambridge, the heart of Massachusetts’s biotech sector.
Adapted from Robert Whitcomb’s “Digital Diary,’’ in GoLocal24.com
Some good news for the economy of Greater Boston (in which I include northern Rhode Island):
A joint venture between Cambridge-based Moderna and New Jersey-based Merck has achieved considerable success in a large-scale trial of an mRNA vaccine designed to reduce the risk of recurrence and spread of the potentially lethal skin cancer called melanoma. This has implications for other cancers, too. No wonder Moderna’s stock price soared on the news.
Meanwhile, Whoop Inc., which makes screenless fitness trackers, plans to double the size of its Boston headquarters, by leasing another 107,000 square feet in the Fenway Park area.
Will Ahmed, the company’s CEO, told Bloomberg News:
“Boston’s been underrated in regards to a lot of what it can provide an up and coming company.’’ The city, he says, breeds “missionaries” who, in Bloomberg’s paraphrase, “stick with an employer because they believe in its mission, in contrast to the mercenary mindset of many in Silicon Valley.’’
“The folks that get a little caught up in the hype cycle of a tech company, or get too caught in the valuation speak or what’s en vogue, they are less likely to stick it out through some of the more challenging periods,” Mr. Ahmed told the news service.
Bloomberg explained that Whoop is “a leader of the Massachusetts AI Coalition, a group of companies and investment firms organized this year that’s seeking to stem the westward migration of startup founders educated at the state’s elite universities like Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.’’ There ought to be New England-wide coalition doing this.
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From the life business to the death business:
Lots of current and prospective skilled workers in southern New England may be planning some big spending plans with the new $76.6 billion contract for General Dynamics’ Electric Boat Division to build a total of 14 new nuclear-powered submarines at Quonset Point, R.I., and Groton, Conn. This will lead to hiring at least another 8,000 people, in addition to the about 24,000 now working for the company!
Some of these subs will carry nuclear-armed missiles. But to fire them might result in the end of civilization and much life on Earth. We make weapons that we want to assume will never be used while showing a willingness to use them!