Three Maryland members of Congress are criticizing the National Institutes of Health for failing to support local small businesses by funding their medical research.
Congress has exempted NIH from mandatory participation in small-business research programs, which U.S. Sen. Benjamin Cardin said was a bad decision.
“I am puzzled as to why they’re not responding to our request,” Cardin said. “We want fair allocation of research funds to small businesses in the community.”
The NIH declined to comment.
Last week, the Senate Small Business Committee voted to reauthorize the Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs, which give more than $2 billion annually to small technology companies.
Maryland is home to more than 400 biotech companies and 50 research institutes, as well as NIH and the Food and Drug Administration. Last month, Maryland created a biotech center to better help the state’s biotech firms compete.
Cardin was joined by U.S. Reps. Chris Van Hollen and Donna Edwards, who represent Montgomery County and who emphasized the importance of small-business research and the need for grant money to fund that research.
Jonathan Cohen, president and chief executive of Rockville biotech company 20/20 GeneSystems, said small businesses created jobs through research and development.
“When you have an innovative project, jobs continue after government funding ceases,” Cohen said.
He described his company’s product BioCheck, which screens for suspicious powders and is being used by federal agencies and hundreds of first responders nationwide.
That product will require the creation of six to eight jobs each year over 20-plus years, he said.
Cohen and others pointed out that NIH funding rarely seemed to move past academic institutions.
“Universities, which receive more than 10 times the federal research and development funding than small businesses, only account for around 8 percent of the key innovations,” said Jere Glover, executive director of the Small Business Technology Council. “But federal research and development procurement does not reflect this reality. Overall, just 4.3 percent of research and development goes to small business.”
