Four years after Governor Deval Patrick signed a $1 billion initiative designed to boost the Massachusetts life sciences industry, the program has brought new companies and jobs to the state - but not as many jobs as originally anticipated. While the governor said in January 2008 that the biomedical initiative could generate 250,000 jobs over 10 years, the economic slowdown has made it unlikely the real gain will come close to that figure. The Donahue Institute at the University of Massachusetts estimates the total number of jobs created so far is 8,750 - half of them temporary construction jobs.
