The numbers tell an astonishing story: Boston is now home to nearly 1,000 biotechnology companies, more than in any other region worldwide. These firms employ over 100,000 people and have attracted a staggering $7 billion in venture capital investment in the past year alone. Driving much of this progress are nimble biotech startups, as well as multibillion-dollar established players, working hand-in-hand with the city’s renowned academic medical centers and hospitals.
As a student pursuing a career in medicine, I’ve been captivated by the sustained growth of Boston’s biotech industry and its profound impact on health care. This unique synergy between academia, medicine, and entrepreneurship fosters a culture of constant exploration. Walking through the bustling Longwood Medical Area, where institutions like Mass General Brigham and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute stand shoulder to shoulder with a vibrant network of startups, one can’t help but feel the energy of groundbreaking ideas taking root.
But what really sets this ecosystem apart, in my view, is the pivotal role that physician-scientists play in fueling innovation and accelerating life-changing therapies. These individuals are deeply entrenched in both the clinical realities of patient care and the cutting edge of scientific research; they are uniquely positioned to identify unmet medical needs and translate them into tangible solutions. (Notably, many of them do so through roles that are often considered to be off the beaten path for doctors.) Such physician-scientists aren’t just passive observers; they’re active catalysts, providing biotech companies with unparalleled access to world-class facilities, diverse patient populations, and leading medical expertise.
(A quick note: I have no relationship with any of the companies mentioned in this article, and descriptions of their business are based on publicly available information and, in some cases, email interviews.)
Take the case of Vertex Pharmaceuticals, now led by CEO Reshma Kewalramani. Dr. Kewalramani had an early interest in medicine, graduating from the combined seven year BS-MD program at Boston University. She then went on to residency and a fellowship in nephrology at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) combined program. However, she transitioned out of a role as a practicing physician and worked for many years at the biotech company Amgen before being picked for Vertex. During her time at Vertex, the company has made significant strides in bringing new medications to more cystic fibrosis patients around the world. Dr. Kewalramani was involved in the approval of Trikafta, which has helped to expand treatment to 90% of patients with the disease. Beyond cystic fibrosis, Dr. Kewalramani has been influential in keeping Vertex’s focus on curative medicines, including treatments for APOL1-mediated kidney diseases, sickle cell disease, and beta-thalassemia. Under her leadership, the company characterizes itself as being “disease-first” as opposed to being organized around a certain technology. Such achievements exemplify the power of physician-scientists in setting priorities based on medical pain points and influencing discovery as well as clinical application.
The relationship companies like Vertex have with physician-scientists in Boston has also enabled them to conduct extensive trials at academic hospitals. A quick perusal of the Clinical Trials page for Vertex shows nearly 100 active or recently completed clinical trials in Boston at MGH, BWH, Boston Children’s Hospital, and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC). This close partnership yields mutual benefits for the companies, patients, and hospitals.
This physician-driven approach extends beyond traditional pharma companies and drug development. Boston’s biotech companies are also developing novel diagnostics, digital health tools, and data analytics solutions. Inovalon is one such company. Founded in 1998 by Dr. Keith Dunleavy, Inovalon is now responsible for 80% of the clinical and quality outcomes analytics in the top 25 U.S. health plans. Dr. Dunleavy has remained CEO since its founding. An alumnus of Harvard Medical School, he was interested in the aggregation and analysis of health care data, drawing from his background in both medicine and engineering. The company’s main office is right on Boylston street, and its growth in Boston to the nation at large has been propelled by partnerships with local hospitals. The involvement of physicians like Dr. Dunleavy from the very beginning has been important in ensuring these data systems are aligned with the needs of clinicians and patients; he came up with the idea for Inovalon’s core business on the wards in his internal medicine residency. And the ability to seamlessly integrate these innovations into real-world clinical settings is crucial for driving adoption and improving patient outcomes.
It’s not just the big players benefitting, either. Smaller, venture-backed biotech startups in Boston are also tapping into the deep pool of physician-scientist expertise. Path AI, for example, is a diagnostics company founded in 2016 with the goal of creating a digital pathology platform for AI analysis of the rapidly growing volume of pathology and histology images processed at hospitals. Now past Series C and with their first FDA-approved product, the company initially came from the research of founder Dr. Andrew Beck while he was on the faculty at BIDMC. Another recent example is Arbor Biotech, an early-stage startup founded by the renowned Dr. Feng Zhang and colleagues Drs. David Walt, David Scott, and Winston Yan. The company aims to develop new genetic medicines based on the programmable DNA editors developed in Dr. Zhang’s lab. His co-founder Dr. Yan is a recent Harvard Medical School graduate, earning his MD-PhD in the Health Sciences and Technology Pathway. Looking at Arbor Biotech’s partnerships, the influence of the Boston environment is plain to see, as they work with Vertex, Ginkgo, and other local companies. However, they also have partnerships with Google and receive funding from Arch Venture Partners, a San Francisco-based VC. This mixing of Silicon Valley and the “Cambridge Confluence,” to coin a phrase, is becoming more common, and beginning to change conceptions about where VC and entrepreneurship live.
However, navigating this dynamic landscape also presents significant challenges. The high cost of research and development can create a barrier to entry for physician-scientists aiming to commercialize their discoveries, and can even hinder the pursuit of treatments for less common diseases. A 2023 report by consultancy group Deloitte found that the average cost of bringing a new drug to market at the top 20 biotech firms now exceeds $2.3 billion. This reality necessitates a collaborative approach, where venture capitalists, academic institutions, and government agencies work together to bridge the funding gap and ensure that promising therapies can be delivered equitably, reaching those who need them most.
Many in medicine question whether the current approach is truly meeting its goals. For example, the aforementioned Trikafta success from Vertex has come under criticism from physicians for its annual price of $326,000 in the U.S., with a protest letter circulated just as the company is set to receive a $3 million award from the Breakthrough Prize Foundation. This is a widespread problem. A 2023 study in Nature Reports by Gupta et al. details the significant disparities in access to new cancer drugs, with patients from lower socioeconomic backgrounds often facing greater challenges. Given that biotech benefits greatly from local academic and research institutions, hospitals, physicians, and patients, I think it is fair to question the distribution of the fruits of science. As Boston’s biotech sector continues to flourish, addressing these issues of affordability and accessibility will be paramount in ensuring that the benefits of innovation are truly democratized — and once again, physicians ought to lead.
As a medical student, I’m inspired by the indispensable role my colleagues are playing in this ongoing biotech revolution. By combining their deep medical expertise with cutting-edge research skills, these physician-scientists are serving as vital infrastructure for the biotech hub, translating scientific breakthroughs into tangible improvements in patient care. It’s this unique blend of clinical acumen and entrepreneurial spirit that I believe gives Boston’s biotech ecosystem an unbeatable advantage. In an industry where the path from the lab to the patient is notoriously fraught with challenges, the city’s physician-scientists are helping to accelerate the development and real-world deployment of transformative new therapies and technologies. At the same time, their roles as clinicians and patient advocates enable them to provide a critical check on the industry.
The thriving biotech sector in Boston is no accident. It is a testament to the city’s bustling spirit — and to its unparalleled commitment to translating scientific progress into tangible improvements in human health.
What Boston-based biotech company are you most excited about? Share in the comments!
Aditya Jain is a third-year medical student at Harvard Medical School. His previous works include "The Future is STEM" and medical fiction shorts for In Vivo Magazine. He is a published researcher on the applications of artificial intelligence in medicine. When he's not busy with rotations, he enjoys playing guitar, reading sci-fi, and nature hiking. He tweets @adityajain_42. Aditya is a 2023–2024 Doximity Op-Med Fellow.
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