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Health Care Reform Gives Michigan Biosciences Firms $18M

Fifty-eight Michigan companies have been awarded federal tax credits or grants under the Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Project Program. The initiative was created under federal health care reform legislation enacted earlier this year to promote research and development of products and therapies with promise to significantly advance healthcare in the country.

MichBio, the trade association driving biosciences industry growth in the state, announced that the 58 companies statewide received $18,374,696 million from the program, part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010.

"The award of the QTDP grants is a great boost for Michigan's biotech start-ups, and in particular the timing couldn't be better as it comes during very challenging economic times when companies are seeking capital investment from any source to sustain their commercialization efforts," said Stephen Rapundalo, MichBio president and CEO. "The QTDP award-credit program recognizes that young companies typically don't have revenues, much less profits, and the ability to recoup some of their expensive R&D costs will allow them to reach their business milestones, grow jobs and contribute to the state's economic revitalization. Also, we hope that the Congress will see fit to renew the QTDP program vs. being a single-time offering as it will no doubt be a huge catalyst for biomedical innovation and growth."

The U.S. Treasury Department reported that it received more than 5,600 applications requesting more than $10 billion. Only firms with 250 or fewer employees were eligible for credits or grants. A total of 2,923 companies specializing in biotechnology and medical research in 47 states and the District of Columbia received awards under the program. In all, 4,606 applications from these nearly 3,000 companies were awarded funding.

Michigan companies that received grants were:

Aastrom Biosciences Inc.
Accord Biomaterials Inc.
Accuri Cytometers Inc.
Adeona Pharmaceuticals Inc.
AlphaCore Pharma LLC
Angott Medical Products LLC
ApoLife Inc.
Armune Bioscience Inc.
Art Optical Contact Lens Inc.    
AureoGen Bioscience Inc.
Aursos Inc.
Cardiavent Inc.
Cayman Chemical Co. Inc.    
Cerenis Therapeutics Inc.    
Compendia Bioscience Inc.
CytoPherx Inc.
Delphinus Medical Technologies Inc.
Esperion Therapeutics Inc.
Genetics Squared Inc.
Great Lakes BioSciences
Housey Pharmaceutical Research Laboratories LLC
Hygieia Inc.
Innovative BioTherapies Inc.
Integrated Sensing Systems
IPGDx LLC
Life Magnetics Inc    
LPIT Solutions Inc.    
LVAD Technology Inc.
Lycera Corp.
Meditrina Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Metabolic Solutions Development Co.
Michigan Critical Care Consultants Inc. d/b/a MC3 Inc.
Michigan Technology & Research Institute LLC
NanoBio Corp.
NanoVir LLC
NephRx Corp.
NeuroNexus Technologies Inc.
Novalung Inc.
Nustep Inc.
Nymirum Inc.
OtoMedicine Inc.
Phrixus Pharmaceuticals Inc.
ProNAI Therapeutics Inc.
QuatRx Pharmaceuticals Co.
RealBio Technology Inc.    
RetroSene (aka RetroSense) Therapeutics LLC
Rockwell Medical Technologies Inc.
Rubicon Genomics Inc.
Sonetics Ultrasound Inc.
Swift Biosciences Inc.
Tangent Medical Technologies    
TCH Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Therapeutic System Research Laboratories Inc.
Tolera Therapeutics Inc.
Ultrasound Medical Devices Inc.
Velcura Therapeutics Inc.
Xoran Technologies Inc.
zuSyn Inc.

View a full list of projects and awards at http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=228993,00.html.

A total of 90 projects are being funded in Michigan. Awards were made for tax years 2009 or 2010 and varied amongst the companies. Not all successful awards were fully funded relative to their original requests.  Nonetheless, it is likely that companies receiving their awards will sustain or create additional jobs in the industry that already provides over 37,000 high quality jobs in Michigan and 1.42 million nationally and is an important growth engine for our economy. 

MichBio is committed to driving the growth of Michigan's biosciences industry and fostering the collective impact of its members by serving as their unified voice and providing them with education, information, connections and other services.  MichBio members include biosciences companies, academic and research institutions, biosciences service providers, and related organizations.

More at www.michbio.org.

(c) 2010, WWJ Newsradio 950. All rights reserved.

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