Governor Chris Sununu this week signed SB 564 into law, a groundbreaking step in the state’s leadership in regenerative medicine. It provides an unprecedented 10-year tax exemption from both the state business profits tax, as well as the business enterprise tax, to for-profit companies that have at least 75 percent of their taxable activity in the Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute (ARMI) project in Manchester.
The bill also includes a $5 million student loan repayment program for workers who devote at least five years to the project, which has been spearheaded by inventor Dean Kamen. Kamen’s vision attracted an $80 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to create the international hub of regenerative manufacturing, whose mission it is to make practical the large-scale manufacturing of engineered tissues and tissue-related technologies, to benefit existing industries and grow new ones.
In addition to Kamen, Sununu was joined by Taylor Caswell, commissioner of Business and Economic Affairs, as well Michael Golway, CEO of Advanced Solutions Life Sciences, and Martine Rothblatt, CEO of Lung BioTechnology, the leaders of two companies first to benefit from this legislation.
Martine Rothblatt ~ CEO, Lung BioTechnology
It is difficult to find the top talent we need. When Dean (Kamen) told me about the possibility that our graduates from the top schools throughout the country would have, after committing five years working here, their student loans paid for, “I said, ‘Dean, this would be something which is better than anyone else in the country has.’”
Our HR people said this is the silver bullet for getting the people you want to have here.
We have already moved our organ manufacturing group from Kendall Square, the hotspot if they are just graduating from MIT or Harvard. We will move them here because I believed that you would get this bill passed.
Because of this, I guarantee there is nothing better you can do than to create opportunity, get out of the way and let the organ manufacturers bring the talented individuals here and take the ball all the way.
“This legislation lays the groundwork to advance New Hampshire’s role in developing the ARMI network and the larger biotech community in our state,” Sununu said. “Veterans, children and people all over the world have the potential to benefit from this research, being done right here in southern New Hampshire.”
Michael Golway, CEO, Advanced Solutions Life Sciences
I’m an 18-year entrepreneur; I’ve done 10 acquisitions and six startups. I share this with you because we’ve had quite a bit of experience buying companies and starting companies around the country and I have never seen the speed with which this legislation was conceptualized and implemented. I applaud everyone who had a role.
From an entrepreneur’s standpoint, there’s an incredible vision with ARMI and what this could look like in the next several years. At its core value, if you think about what it could mean for this area; if you truly become the Silicon Valley for biofabrication, it is a course direction that will impact this area and region for many, many years to come.
This is a big deal; this is a material calculus of how we look at a strategy for this business, anytime you can get relief or mitigate the risks, that’s a good thing and this bill in particular does just that.
“By supporting the critical work being done by ARMI, New Hampshire’s biotech sector will continue to flourish, attracting innovative companies and employees to the Granite State,” Caswell said. “The student loan repayment program will competitively position the state as we continue to recruit and grow our workforce.”