Massachusetts is poised for biotech growth

Massachusetts has the ideal climate for a robust biotechnology industry, Christoph Westphal (right), chief executive of Sirtris Pharmaceuticals Inc., said today.

Biotechnology here is on a "growth trajectory" because of local access to transformative science, talent, and financing, added Westphal, the keynote speaker at a breakfast this morning marking the Globe 100, this newspaper's annual snapshot of top businesses in the Bay State.

This year marked the 20th anniversary of the Globe 100, and this year's breakfast was held at the Westin Boston Waterfront hotel.

Not many other metropolitan areas can make similar claims when it comes to biotechnology, Westphal said. They may have the science but not the access to financing, or they may have access to financing but not the access to the deep reservoir of talent that Greater Boston enjoys, according to an advance outline of his remarks that was made available to Boston.com.

There is evidence to back up Westphal's claim. Just in the last few weeks, the local biotechnology industry has made big news.

Take Westphal's own company for example. Cambridge-based Sirtris looks to develop drugs based on an extract of red wine to fight diabetes and other age-related diseases, and last month it agreed to be purchased by British drug maker GlaxoSmithKline PLC for $720 million.

Only days earlier, another Cambridge biotechnology company, Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc., said it had been sold to Japanese drug maker Takeda Pharmaceuticals Co. for $8.8 billion, the biggest deal in the history of the state's biotechnology industry.

Those deals make it highly unlikely that Sirtris and Millennium will be on the Globe 100 next year.

One requirement for making the Globe 100 is that a company maintain its corporate headquarters in Massachusetts.

This year, the Globe 100 ranked the state's best-performing publicly traded corporations by how well they increased sales, profits, and returns for shareholders during 2007.

For the second straight year, Perini Corp., a Framingham construction company, topped the Globe 100.
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)