“I appreciate Secretary Geithner and Director Collin’s announcement and their quick action on this new initiative,” Rep. Schwartz said. “These grants and tax credits will better enable small biotech businesses in Southeastern Pennsylvania and across the country by providing them with much needed capital to bring their innovative and life-saving treatments to the marketplace. I look forward to reviewing the guidance further to ensure that it is implemented in a way that can most effectively enable Pennsylvania businesses succeed.”
 
Rep. Schwartz was a leading advocate in Congress, along with Sen. Robert Menendez, Sen. John Kerry, and Rep. Chris Van Hollen for this innovative opportunity for small biotech businesses. As a member of the Committee on Ways and Means, Rep. Schwartz urged House and Senate leadership to include this proposal in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The proposal was supported by a coalition of 61 patient advocacy groups, including Easter Seals, the Children’s Tumor Foundation, the Parkinson’s Action Network, and the Muscular Dystrophy Association.
 
Former Pennsylvania Congressman Jim Greenwood (R-Bucks County), now the President of the Biotechnology Industry Organization, has said this proposal would help, “companies continue their groundbreaking research that likely will lead to new therapies to treat patients living with chronic or acute diseases and help reduce long-term health care costs.”  He also said it “promises to save and create thousands of jobs across our nation.”
 
Many of those jobs are likely to be in the Metropolitan Philadelphia area, which is the No. 2 location in the United States for life sciences, according to the Milken Institute. The biotech and life sciences industry employs 77,000 people across the Commonwealth.  Pennsylvania BIO President Chris Molineaux has called this credit a much-needed, “shot in the arm,” for companies in Southeastern Pennsylvania.

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