BIA welcomes budget statement
pharmafile | March 20, 2014 | News story | Manufacturing and Production, Medical Communications, Research and Development, Sales and Marketing | BIA, Budget, Osborne, R&D, seed, sme
An increase in R&D tax credits and the creation of a cell therapy manufacturing centre were two of the highlights for life sciences companies in the UK chancellor’s Budget yesterday.
The BioIndustry Association (BIA) is particularly pleased with the latter since it called for such a move in its Budget submission.
The government says it will put £55 million into setting up the large-scale centre, a move that was also recommended to unblock a major barrier to growth in the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee’s regenerative medicines report.
“The centre will help establish the UK as global centre for cell therapy manufacturing,” BIA chief executive Steve Bates says. “This will ensure that this high-value manufacturing industry of the future will reside in the UK and so will the value and jobs created by it.”
It will be managed by the Cell Therapy Catapult, whose chief executive Keith Thompson called it “a recognition of the quality and growth potential of the UK cell therapy industry”.
Thompson adds: “It will be accessible to firms scaling up for Phase III trials and market supply, bridging the gap between early manufacturing and commercialisation.”
The BIA also supports Osborne’s changes to the tax credit scheme from April, saying they will help bioscience firms to prosper.
“For innovative, equity-backed bioscience companies, access to finance remains key and the R&D tax credit regime is the bedrock of government support,” Bates says.
“Increasing the rate of payable credit under the scheme from 11% to 14.5% for such companies is commendable and shows serious support for innovators.”
It means that a loss-making SME investing £100,000 in qualifying R&D can claim a cash payment of £32,600 – which is £7,800 more than it possible at present.
The Budget also saw several other measures which the BIA welcomed: among them the making permanent of the SEED Enterprise Investment Scheme and the doubling of the annual investment allowance for companies to £500,000.
Adam Hill
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