WHAT DOES THE NEW HEALTH CARE PLAN MEAN FOR BIOTECHNOLOGY?
– America’s new health plan is bringing in a lot of cheers, jeers and most importantly, questions. Well one of those questions we’re looking to answer here is what does this new plan mean for biotech? Well, according to Richard Gayle of Xconomy, there are two “small bits” in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that are immediately relevant and timely for the biotechnology industry: One provides tax breaks for smaller biotechnology companies, while the other simplifies some aspects of the regulatory landscape and adds some complicated wrinkles. The Therapeutic Discovery Project Credit provides “an amount equal to 50 percent of the qualified investment for such taxable year with respect to any qualifying therapeutic discovery project,” permitting some of the costs for pre-clinical research, clinical trials and other research protocols to be reduced. It appears that it will be limited to organizations with fewer than 250 employees. The total amount of the credit is $1 billion.