It’s been more than nine years since state lawmakers approved borrowing more than $1 billion to build-up Connecticut’s bioscience stature.
A newly issued report from UConn, whose academic and clinical health campus in Farmington has been the largest beneficiary of the state’s investment, deemed the program “a tremendous success.”
UConn-related construction and initiatives were officially completed back in May. The final piece was a renovation project at a clinical health building at UConn Health.
Wrapping up the Bioscience Connecticut capital projects also means UConn’s legislatively mandated duty to report to lawmakers on the program is over.
Major Farmington building projects funded by Bioscience Connecticut, which was perhaps the largest and most notable initiative of former Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s tenure, included the construction of a 384,000-square-foot inpatient tower and 307,000-square-foot outpatient pavilion at John Dempsey Hospital; renovations to 200,000 square feet of lab space at UConn Health’s main building; and a significant expansion of a technology incubator facility that is now fully leased by approximately 40 companies.
Some other highlights and takeaways from UConn’s latest and final Bioscience Connecticut report:
- Clinical revenues have grown nearly 60 percent since 2013, and now comprise nearly half of UConn Health’s $1.2 billion annual budget. UConn Health is projecting clinical revenue to grow by $29.1 million this year, or 5.4 percent.
- Patient care volumes have increased by 7 percent to 9 percent annually since 2013, thanks largely to the major clinical construction projects in Farmington.
- Despite that growth and UConn Health describing its operational fundamentals as “stronger than ever,” it said unfunded state pension and healthcare liabilities are impacting its overall financial performance. UConn Health has sought potential buyers or partners for its clinical operations, but thus far hasn’t found a match.
- Class sizes across UConn’s medical and dental schools have grown more than 30 percent, exceeding initial targets.
- Nearly $435 million of the $513.5 million in Bioscience Connecticut construction and other contracts awarded went to Connecticut companies, and more than one-third of those were classified as small businesses.
- UConn Health has exceeded an initial hiring target of 50 new faculty members. Through fiscal year 2018 it had hired 71.
- Thanks in part to laboratory renovations funded by the program, UConn Health said it brought in more than $106 million in research grants and contracts in fiscal year 2019, which is expected to increase by 3 percent this fiscal year. UConn previously reported research grants and contracts of $69 million in 2015 and $85 million in 2016.
The Bioscience Connecticut program doesn’t technically include the approximately $291 million incentive package the state granted to Maine-based Jackson Laboratory (Jax) in 2011 to entice the nonprofit research institute to build a major research center at the UConn Health campus.
That funding was approved in a separate legislative act from the Bioscience Connecticut money.
(Bioscience Connecticut was created in 2010 and amended in 2011 to increase funding.)
Bioscience Connecticut and the Jax investment are often mentioned together, and are certainly related in their aims.
UConn’s report this week highlights a number of positive impacts — on hiring and research, for example — from the creation of Jax’s 183,500-square-foot facility, which opened in 2014 and met its job creation targets four years early, resulting in the state writing off the nonprofit’s loan balance of $166 million last year, nearly four years ahead of schedule.
While UConn had only good things to say to lawmakers about Bioscience Connecticut, there have been questions about whether it’s been a wise investment.
Some have questioned whether the state should have placed its chips on the already dominant bioscience cluster in New Haven, rather than seeking to build up Farmington.
Overall, the bioscience sector in Connecticut, hurt by corporate moves by the likes of Bristol-Myers Squibb and Alexion, has seen employment dip in recent years. Industry boosters have proposed ways to try to reverse that trend, and have pointed to bright spots amid the churn.
