SOURCE: www.hhs.gov
Under the Affordable Care Act, Therapeutic Discovery Credit Will Support Research with Significant Potential to Produce New Therapies, Create High-Quality Jobs
WASHINGTON – Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner and Secretary of Health and
Human Services Kathleen Sebelius joined with NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins today to announce the recipients of the $1 billion in new therapeutic discovery project credits and grants created by the Affordable Care Act. This program will help nearly 3,000 small biotechnology companies in nearly every state in the country produce new and cost-saving therapies, support good jobs and increase U.S. competitiveness.
“The United States has the most innovative companies, the most ambitious entrepreneurs and the most productive workers in the world,” said Secretary Geithner. “These grants will help make sure our companies, entrepreneurs and workers can continue to invest and innovate, which will strengthen our economy now and far into the future.”
“The Therapeutic Discovery Project Program is the latest step in our efforts to improve the nation’s health care. The grants and tax credits we’re announcing today will support small biotech firms with big potential across the country,” said Secretary Sebelius. “With this funding, they’ll be able to hire more staff, improve facilities and move forward with research projects that might otherwise have been put on hold. We can’t afford to see promising discoveries discarded or innovative businesses move overseas. Thanks to the funding provided today, firms can avoid these roadblocks and continue to do business right here in the US.”
“These grants made possible by the Affordable Care Act will not only help to create jobs and bolster the economy but also bring us closer to the next generation of life-saving cures,” said NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins. “The projects funded show significant potential to create new therapies that will address unmet medical needs and bolster the medical countermeasure supply we use to respond to health emergencies.”
A total of 2,923 companies specializing in biotechnology and medical research in 47 states and the District of Columbia received awards under the therapeutic discovery project program created by the Affordable Care Act. In all, 4,606 applications from these nearly 3,000 companies were awarded funding.
The therapeutic discovery project program is targeted to projects that show significant potential to produce new therapies, address unmet medical needs, reduce the long-term growth of health care costs, or advance the goal of curing cancer within the next 30 years. The allocation of the credit also reflects which projects show the greatest potential to create and sustain high-quality, high-paying jobs in the United States and to advance our competitiveness in the fields of life, biological, and medical sciences. Today, the biotechnology industry employs 1.3 million workers, and the industry continues to be a key growth engine for our economy.
The credit covers up to 50 percent of the cost of qualifying biomedical research and is only available to firms with fewer than 250 employees. To provide an immediate boost to U.S. biomedical research and the small businesses that conduct it, the credit is effective for investments made in 2009 and 2010. Firms could opt to receive a grant instead of a tax credit, so start-ups that are not yet profitable can benefit as well.