A new report from The Boston Foundation highlights the benefits of Gov. Deval Patrick’s 10-year, $1-billion life sciences initiative, launched five years ago. So far, the commonwealth has spent more than $300 million on grants, capital projects, internship funding, tax incentives and accelerator loans. Companies such as Shire, Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Biogen Idec, Merrimack and Dyax have all benefited from tax credits.

The report, compiled by Northeastern University economists Barry Bluestone and Alan Clayton-Matthews, states that 2,537 jobs – at a cost of $22,175 per job – had been created as of June 30, 2012. The average salary for these jobs is $105,037 per year.

But the initiative and its companion Life Sciences Center have worked to attract companies and retain talent in the commonwealth and, according to the report, has worked to create a life sciences “ecosystem” that other states would be envious of. Of course, being in the vicinity of four medical schools and hundreds of thousands of college and graduate students helps too.

The report notes that Massachusetts has overtaken all competitor states in its rate of life sciences job creation. And the economists behind the report advocate “fully funding the remaining five years of the initiative in order to maintain the lead the life sciences have established in the commonwealth.”

As the National Institutes of Health research budget is slashed and the effects of the sequester become more noticeable, especially in the biotech world, the funding the state doles out to companies will become increasingly more important.

That’s where Patrick’s plan comes in. Now the initiative needs more time to prove itself.