The Boston Globe - 27.08.2019

Business

THE BOSTON GLOBE TUESDAY, AUGUST 27, 2019 | BOSTONGLOBE.COM/BUSINESS

C

INSIDE

CHESTO MEANS BUSINESS

Raise Up’s letter tests its ties

to business community.C2.

STAT

Court clears way for release

of Purdue OxyContin files.C2.

By Jon Chesto
GLOBE STAFF
An MIT spinoff known as the En-
gine is putting “tough tech” in the spot-
light as it prepares to convert an old
Polaroid building in Cambridge into
labs and offices for startups with po-
tentially game-changing technologies
for the energy, biotech, and manufac-
turing fields.
MIT created the Engine — a for-
profit company that runs a $205 mil-
lion venture fund — in 2016 to help
startups with longer-term horizons
that were finding it difficult to secure
venture capital and other more tradi-
tional kinds of startup financing.
On Tuesday, the Engine marks a
milestone: an announcement of a
200,000-square-foot lease with MIT in

a vacant building once used by Pola-

roid at 750 Main St. Renovations to

create offices, labs, and fabrication

space are scheduled to start at the end

of the year; they are expected to open

by early 2022.

The Engine has invested in 19 so-

called tough tech startups so far, busi-

nesses that collectively employ more

than 200 people. Most of them work

out of 28,000 square feet that the En-

gine currently leases at 501 Massachu-

setts Ave. in Central Square. Katie Rae,

the chief executive and managing part-

ner, said she expects to keep the exist-

ing space after the new one opens.

Rae said the Engine will eventually

serve 100-plus companies, employing

at least 1,000 people at the two loca-

tions.

Israel Ruiz, MIT’s treasurer and

chairman of the Engine’s board, said it

remains a wholly owned subsidiary of

MIT, and the university invested $

million in its signature fund. But the

21-person venture does have a sepa-

rate board of directors (Boston Globe

managing director Linda Pizzuti Hen-

ry is a member), acts independently,

and makes its own investment deci-

sions.

Ruiz said MIT created the Engine

after noticing that some spinouts from

the university struggled when they no

longer had access to labs and equip-

ment at the school, with several leav-

ingthestate.Butthosethatwentelse-

where often found it even harder to

MIT,PageC

Ex-Polaroidfacilitytohouseservicesforstartups

The Engine, an MIT

spinoff, is renovating

THE ENGINE

The Engine’s

new home will

be fashioned

out of a former

Polaroid

building in

Cambridge. It

will serve

biotechnology,

energy, and

manufacturing

startups.

Larry Edelman

President Trump continues to take

anyone with a stake in global trade on

a roller coaster ride, and it’s been par-

ticularly dizzying over the past few

days.

Unfortunately, for investors, execu-

tives, and the rest of us, it’s not going

to end any time soon. Odds are good

that there will be no trade deal with

China before the 2020 election. That’s

unless the Chinese economy, the US

economy, or both, reach the brink of

recession. Then the incentives to call a

truce are high.

US stocks rose Monday after the

president expressed optimism at the

Group of Seven summit in France that

the two countries would be able to set-

tle their fight. Trump said US negotia-

tors received two ‘‘very good calls’’

from China on Sunday. “They under-

stand and we understand,’’ Trump

said.

Don’t get too excited.

It was just three days ago that

Trump tanked the stock market by

throwing a Twitter temper tantrum in

which he declared, “Our great Ameri-

can companies are hereby ordered to

immediately start looking for an alter-

native to China.”

American chief executives scoffed,

and China responded to the outburst

by imposing more tariffs on US goods.

Trump responded to China’s tit with

his own tat: an increase in tariffs on

Chinese imports.

And that was followed by a confus-

ing series of comments in which the

president suggested he was sorry for

going ballistic, only to have a spokes-

woman later say Trump’s one regret

was not raising tariffs even higher.

Which brings us to Monday, and

Trump’s assertion that trade talks

were back on track.

‘‘This is the first time I've seen

them where they really want to make

a deal,” he said, ignoring previous in-

stances when the administration said

it was close to an agreement with Chi-

na. “And I think that’s a very positive

step.’’

But a spokesman for China’s for-

eign ministry said that he didn’t know

what calls Trump was talking about.

‘‘I have not heard of the weekend

calls mentioned by the United States,’’

EDELMAN,PageC

China trade

deal unlikely

anytime soon

By Sean Murphy
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NORMAN, Okla. — An Oklahoma
judge on Monday found that Johnson
& Johnson and its subsidiaries
helped fuel the state’s opioid crisis
and ordered the consumer products
giant to pay $572 million to help
abate the problem in the coming
years.
Cleveland County District Judge

Thad Balkman’s ruling followed the

first state opioid case to make it to tri-

al and could help shape negotiations

in roughly 1,500 similar lawsuits

filed by state, local, and tribal govern-

ments consolidated before a federal

judge in Ohio.

‘‘The opioid crisis has ravaged the

state of Oklahoma,’’ Balkman said be-

fore announcing the verdict. ‘‘It must

be abated immediately.’’

The companies are expected to ap-

peal the ruling to the Oklahoma Su-

preme Court.

Before Oklahoma’s trial began on

May 28, the state settled with two

other defendant groups a $270 mil-

lion deal with OxyContin maker Pur-

due Pharma and an $85 million set-

tlement with Teva Pharmaceutical

Industries Ltd. of Israel.

Oklahoma argued the companies

and their subsidiaries had created a

public nuisance by launching an ag-

gressive and misleading marketing

campaign that overstated how effec-

tive the drugs were for treating

chronic pain and understated the

risk of addiction.

Oklahoma Attorney General Mike

Hunter said opioid overdoses killed

4,653 people in the state from 2007

OPIOIDSUIT,PageC

J&Jorderedtopay$572mforitsroleinopioidcrisis

By Jonathan Saltzman

GLOBE STAFF

B

iotechnology jobs in

Massachusetts grew

at the fastest annual

clip in more than a

decade in 2018, ac-

cording to a study by

a trade group, but its

author says the growth is unsustain-

able unless transportation in the state

improves.

The number of biopharma jobs

grew by 6.4 percent to 74,256 last

year, the largest increase in 11 years,

according to the annual “industry

snapshot” released Tuesday by the

Massachusetts Biotechnology Coun-

cil.

In the past 10 years, the report

says, the number of people working in

the industry in Massachusetts has in-

creased by almost 20,000, or 35 per-

cent.

But the author, Elizabeth Steele,

vice president of programs and global

affairs for the Cambridge-based lob-

bying group, said the trend can’t con-

tinue unless the government im-

proves transportation, including the

Massachusetts Bay Transportation

Authority and highways.

“The future struggle for the indus-

try is making sure that the state’s in-

frastructure, specifically transporta-

BIOTECH,PageC

Kendall Square (above, beyond the Longfellow Bridge), ground zero for

the state’s biotech industry, is too hard to get to, business leaders say.

Largest biopharma employers in Mass.

Company Employees

1. Takeda 4,


2. Sanofi 4,


3. Biogen 2,


4. Novartis 2,


5. Pfizer 2,
   SOURCES: MassBio; Boston Business Journal Book of Lists, 2018
   GEORGE PATISTEAS/GLOBE STAFF

’09 ’11 ’10’12 ’14’13’15 ’16 ’17 ’

74,

54,

0

20,

60,

40,

80,

GLOBE STAFF FILE /201 4

Biopharma job growth in Mass.

SOURCES: Privately owned companies, Bureau of Labor Statistics

CRAIG F. WALKER/GLOBE STAFF/FILE 2019

Will commuting

derail biotech’s

growth?

Job gains won’t be sustainable unless

transit improves, study concludes