BIO Praises Senate Passage of SBIR Reauthorization |
| Friday, 02 December 2011 13:32 |
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The Senate amendment was offered by Sens. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME), with the following co-sponsors: Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Scott Brown (R-MA), John Kerry (D-MA), Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), Christopher Coons (D-DE), Carl Levin (D-MI), Benjamin Cardin (D-MD), and Robert Casey (D-PA).
BIO President and CEO Jim Greenwood made the following statement today: "Through the passage of this Act, the Senate has voted to extend the SBIR program, which provides critical funding for the development of innovative medical therapies for Cancer, Diabetes and HIV. SBIR grants are critical for supporting small companies with promising scientific innovation to continue critical research and development of medical advancements and breakthroughs. At the very earliest stages of development, other sources of financing such as SBIR grants have been instrumental in advancing research and development in biotechnology. "We believe that reauthorizing the program to allow small companies that receive the majority of their financing from venture capital to once again be eligible to compete for SBIR grants is imperative. The importance of restoring eligibility to small biotechnology companies has never been more clear. The ability of the SBIR program to provide critical funding for medical research projects will remain hampered unless the SBIR program is updated to address the current realities facing small, innovative American companies. “Today’s passage of the Senate bill is a critical step toward ensuring that all innovative companies can compete for SBIR grants – based on the promise of their science rather than the structure of their capital. This change will allow more small biotechnology start-ups to continue critical research and development of medical advancements and breakthroughs. "The importance of advancing science has never been more important than it is right now as companies are struggling to recover from the economic crisis, and accelerate growth, hiring and research. SBIR should be an aggressively competitive program that fulfills federal research and development goals of bringing breakthrough public health discoveries to the public." For data and analysis on the biotechnology industry, please visit http://insidebioia.com. About BIO BIO represents more than 1,100 biotechnology companies, academic institutions, state biotechnology centers and related organizations across the United States and in more than 30 other nations. BIO members are involved in the research and development of innovative healthcare, agricultural, industrial and environmental biotechnology products. BIO also produces the BIO International Convention, the world’s largest gathering of the biotechnology industry, along with industry-leading investor and partnering meetings held around the world. BIO produces BIOtech Now, an online portal and monthly newsletter chronicling “innovations transforming our world.” Subscribe to BIOtech Now. Upcoming BIO Events BIO Asia International Partnering Conference BIO CEO & Investor Conference World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology & Bioprocessing 2012 BIO International Convention Read more http://feeds.businesswire.com/click.phdo?i=d34f0ba42cdefe5f3533cb20021a5bb2 BiomedReports is not paid or compensated to report news and developments about publicly traded companies. Full disclosure can be read in the About Us Section Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites            |
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