Note: The Skinny blog is written by Rick Smith, editor and co-founder of Local Tech Wire and business editor of WRAL.com.
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. – Their drugs aren’t all “shovel ready” to start saving lives, but R&D is keeping some people working. Is the federal stimulus program going to pay dividends in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry?
The election on Tuesday clearly showed “stimulus” is a new curse word in the vocabulary of many people, but don’t count biotech and pharmaceutical executives among the cursers.
Biotech and pharmaceutical firms across the Carolinas and Georgia cashed in this week on $1 billion in grants and credits the federal government made available through the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” that was part of the stimulus plan.
While the U.S. economy remains mired in slow- or virtually no-growth mode, life science firms with fewer than 250 employees are getting individual grant boosts worth as much as nearly $245,000.
And some firms, such as BioCryst in the Triangle and Targacept in Winston-Salem, received multiple awards.
The Department of Health and Human Services picked the recipients. The money intended to help underwrite the costs of drug development.
Local Tech Wire ran stories about four of the winning firms (Pozen, OxyBio, BioCryst, Dara) on Wednesday. That was before the avalanche of awards was disclosed by the government. There are simply too many to list.
Across North Carolina, some 190 grants were awarded worth $36 million.
In Georgia, 75 grants totaled $15 million.
In South Carolina, 14 grants totaled $2.6 million.
Perhaps this is a stimulus that will really work – multiple times. If so, we all benefit with better health.
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