How do life sciences companies deal with three major snow storms in the course of two-plus weeks? It’s a question I got around to asking in the midst of the third snowstorm, which I’ll call the “long snow event” of Feb. 8-10. At my place of work, the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, we don’t operate laboratories. We’re an office-based trade organization. So, we closed our doors for two days during the recent snow event. It involved considerable rescheduling of events and meetings, but tied to email and the Internet rather than to lab benches, it was relatively easy for our business to carry on remotely.
For research-based organizations and those manufacturing drug products, it is a far different story. A quick informal survey of eight lab-based research companies found that most ran with at least skeleton crews during the worst of the snowstorms. A common refrain was that, while many operations could wait for better weather, some in-process research simply couldn’t be stopped. Researchers know how essential they are – or are not – and what the status of their research is. This is reported up the scientific management chain and decisions are made on overall operations. Of the eight research companies from which I received responses, only three were “closed” on any day during the worst of the snowstorms, with the exception of the travel ban day of the January blizzard in which all were “officially” closed.
Of course, much of the work in the biopharma industry doesn’t occur in the laboratories at all. For these office-based functions, accommodations are generally made to allow for employees to work from home during the most serious of weather. Seven of the eight respondents indicated that “non-essential” staffers were asked to work from home as needed. As one respondent suggested, in reference to the “Celebratory Super Bowl Snowstorm” of Feb. 1-3, “we saw that coming on Friday, [so] we prepared the team in advance. As a result, for example, I completed a lot of work from home that day – after I sent Patriot victory-lap emails to friends around the country.”
One common negative sentiment among Cambridge respondents was the lamentable performance of the MBTA during the snowstorms. Isn’t the idea in snow storms to get people off the dangerous roads and on trains and trolleys?
Assuming The New England Mien
For facility operators, there is no such thing as a snow day. If you are a landlord, you are required to provide access to your building regardless of the snowfall. For Alexandria Real Estate, Cummings Properties, DivcoWest, BioMed Realty and others, snow means redoubled efforts to keep facilities up and running, regardless of the status of tenant operations. Kevin O’Sullivan, the CEO of the MBI incubator in storm-tossed Worcester, reported “we operate on a 365-day, 24-hour card access basis at each facility … the landlords of our four facilities all do a great job in keeping access open.” When Gov. Charlie Baker restricted travel during the January blizzard, however, “we had only a few” travel to the facilities. Generally, MBI and other landlords advise caution, but operating decisions are made by individual tenant companies.
For manufacturers, the show must go on. In the manufacture of biologic drugs, it is impossible to stop the biologically-based drug manufacturing process mid-batch. It would cost millions of dollars, as the batch would be lost. To avoid such a scenario, drug manufacturers require redundant electrical and water supply systems, as well as robust backup power generation to be in place. Drug manufacturers go to great lengths to ensure that their qualified workers are in place during snow events. At Shire Pharmaceuticals in Lexington, for example, when snowstorms hit “we provide hotel stays and transportation for essential personal,” said Bill Ciambrone, executive vice president for technical operations.
Life science companies, then, have all assumed the appropriate New England bearing regarding snowstorms: Deal with it and make up the work when the weather improves. After all, we don’t take the entire summer off, like much of the rest of the world does. Hold it, we are getting a summer this year, aren’t we?
Peter Abair is director of economic development and global affairs at the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council (MassBio).
