Overview

The need      
A new center for personalized medicine.

The solution   
The Bioscience Connecticut initiative.

The story
The Jackson Laboratory (“Jax”) was developing a center for genomic medicine, where it would develop treatments for difficult-to-treat diseases using the patient’s own genes. It had abandoned its plans to build in Florida and was looking for a new site. Connecticut saw the center as an investment in a growth industry and saw that locating it next to UConn Health’s research facilities in Farmington would jump-start the state’s bioscience cluster.

The state agreed to provide a $192 million construction loan and $99 million in research partnership participation. The loan would be forgiven if Jax created at least 300 jobs, including at least 90 for senior scientists, within 10 years. The state would also receive royalty payments on therapies and treatments created there.

The results
Jax has already surpassed those 10-year job-creation goals. In July 2018, Jax announced it had exceeded those goals with a workforce of 385 people — at an average annual salary of more than $90,000 — and expects to double its headcount in coming years.