Last year’s awards to Boston recipients, especially teaching hospitals and academic labs clustered in the Longwood medical area, totaled $2.1 billion. That was down from the record $2.4 billion in 2009, when federal stimulus grants were included, but more than any previous year.
Boston will host next year’s annual BIO convention, which is expected to attract about 20,000 biotechnology executives and investors. In advance of the international gathering, city officials are highlighting the concentration of medical research as a lure for companies seeking new drugs and partners.
“We have to show the outside world that we’re a city that welcomes them,’’ Menino said. “We’ve been a leader for so many years and we’ve got great possibilities.’’
While the city also hosted the BIO convention in 2007, it had only limited success in parlaying the attention into the recruitment of new businesses. But the mayor maintains that Boston is now more attractive as a life sciences center.
Last week, developers broke ground on the Fan Pier headquarters of Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc., the Cambridge drug maker that recently won US approval for a new hepatitis C treatment. Earlier in the month, pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. unveiled an alliance with Boston hospitals and universities with plans to establish a research center in the heart of the Longwood area.
Boston hopes to build on those successes — while also highlighting about 50 small businesses that have moved into the Seaport area in the last couple of years — as it tries to attract more visitors to next year’s BIO event. “Our message is bring your businesses here, not just your suitcase,’’ said Peter Meade, BRA director.
The marketing effort will be aided by the Boston area’s standing as one of the nation’s reigning life sciences hubs, though most of the US and global drug giants that have established a foothold here in recent years have chosen addresses in neighboring Cambridge, closer to Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. But with Vertex moving across the river, Boston officials believe the life sciences cluster can be expanded.
