Rep. Schwartz (D-PA) calls on Congress to extend biotech tax credit

Last month, Rep. Allyson Schwartz, a sernior member of the House Budget Committee, said Congress should extend the biotech tax credit to stimulate the industry in an opinion piece published in Politico.

Rep. Shwartz was referring to the H.R. 1988, the Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Project Tax Credit Exentsion Act of 2011, which she is co-sponsoring with Rep. Susan Davis (D-CA). The bill was introduced on May 25, 2011, and seeks to "amend the Internal Revenue Code to extend for an additional five-year period the authority to invest in and allocate credit amounts for a qualifying therapeutic discovery project."

She pointed out that the Therapeutic Tax Credit of 2009 made $1 billion available for some 3,000 small biotech and bioscience companies in 47 states through tax credits and grants, and as a result contributed to growth in the biotech sector over the past year. The original law authrorizing the tax credit was effective for two years only.

If passed, the bill would provide an additional $1 billion dollars to biotech and bioscience companies with fewer than 250 employees through 2017.