US biotech firms line up for tax credits

摘要

Tucked away on page 759 of the voluminous health-care law signed by President Barack Obama in March is a provision to aid small companies doing research and development (R&D) in biotechnology. Starting on 21 June, many of those companies will be racing to take advantage of a tax credit worth up to $5 million per company and totalling $1 billion.rnCalled the Therapeutic Discovery Project Program, the initiative aims to lift an industry that has struggled during the recent economic crisis. When anxious investors shifted money to low-risk investments, high-risk biopharmaceutical companies, particularly young firms with no products on the market, were left scrambling for cash (see graph).