On Monday, July 26^th, U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz, Jim Greenwood, president and CEO of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), and Christopher Molineaux, president of Pennsylvania Bio, will host a roundtable discussion on the new Therapeutic Discovery Project Program. This new program offers small biotech companies (less than 250 employees) a tax credit or grant to encourage investment in new medical therapies for life-changing diseases.

Schwartz was the leading House advocate for this opportunity for innovative small biotech businesses. As a member of the House Committee on Ways and Means, Schwartz urged House and Senate leadership to include this proposal in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

These grants and tax credits will help 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. This program could lead to new therapies to treat patients living with chronic diseases and help reduce health care costs in the long term, as well as create thousands of American jobs.

Many of the small biotech companies that will be able to offer these jobs are likely to be in the Greater 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 approximately 81,000 people across the Commonwealth.

This event will be open to the press and on the record. Reporters will be able to ask questions of the participants at the completion of the roundtable discussion.

WHO:             Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz

Jim Greenwood, BIO

Christopher Molineaux, Pennsylvania Bio

Representatives from biotech companies in Southeastern PA

WHEN:           Monday, July 26, 2010

11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

WHERE:         Temple University Fort Washington, Room 21

425 Commerce Drive

Fort Washington PA 19034

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