Menendez Announces Introduction of Extension of Successful Bio Tech Tax Credit to Spur Jobs, Spur New Medical Breakthroughs

Menendez Announces Introduction of Extension of Successful Bio Tech Tax Credit to Spur Jobs, Spur New Medical Breakthroughs

May 24, 2012

Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Robert Menendez, author of the successful Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Project, which has provided tax credits to small and emerging biotechnology companies to create jobs, spur medical innovation and breakthroughs, and help find new cures, announced at yesterday's Senate Manufacturing Caucus event on Biosciences and Manufacturing in America that he has introduced legislation to extend this critical tax credit for two years "so the research done at so many innovative small biotech companies can continue leading to treatments and cures manufactured right here in America."

"The biotechnology industry is critical to America's competitiveness in the 21st century economy.  Biotech labs employ dedicated scientists and researchers, whose discoveries could lead to a groundbreaking cures for cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer's, or HIV/AIDS," Menendez said. "Manufacturing these breakthrough therapies is already creating thousands of high-paying jobs and extending this critical tax credit will not only create more good jobs here in America, but keep us at the forefront of life-saving innovation."

BIO President and CEO Jim Greenwood, who attended the Senate meeting, said:  "It is critical for the U.S. to maintain its leadership in biotechnology innovation and retain jobs in this country.  Leaders of American biotechnology companies say that the TDP will help them sustain or create high quality jobs by providing capital assistance that supports their work and their work force.  BIO commends Senator Menendez for his continued efforts to extend this critical and much-needed program to support biotechnology innovation."

The biotech industry directly employs 1.4 million Americans and supports an additional 6.6 million jobs.  A strong domestic biotech industry creates a wide range of good jobs, from the lab to the office to the manufacturing plant, in all 50 states.

Menendez first introduced the TDP in 2010 as part of the health insurance reform law.  The legislation provided $1 billion in tax credits that funded research at nearly 3,000 small innovative American life sciences companies.  The provision resulted in the investment of $53 million in New Jersey that has kept life-saving research going while capital markets collapsed during the economic downturn.

Therapeutic Discovery Project Tax Credit: S. 3232

In 2010, the TDP injected $1 billion of much-needed capital into small biotechnology businesses.  The TDP was restricted to companies with fewer than 250 employees that had made investments to develop promising new therapies to treat or prevent costly and chronic diseases.  Nearly 3,000 companies from 48 states received funds from the program for over 4,500 innovative projects.

The TDP extension that Senator Menendez introduced includes several improvements to make the program more competitive so that the projects with the most significant potential to meet the medical challenges that America faces will be prioritized.

The TDP funds small businesses across America working on the next-generation of therapeutic advances in a host of disease areas such as cancer, diabetes, infectious disease and Alzheimer's.

In addition to assisting small companies with high-risk, high-reward research, the TDP is designed to sustain U.S. jobs related to medical innovation. Specifically, the legislation instructs the administration to take into consideration those projects with the greatest potential to create and sustain high-quality, high-paying jobs in the U.S., and advance U.S. competitiveness in the fields of biological and medical sciences.