By Robert Frederick
St. Louis, MO. – Missouri's Senator Kit Bond and Congressman Sam Graves invited patients and healthcare groups to Capitol Hill today to urge Congress to pass legislation that affects small biotechnology businesses.
Currently, special government grants are set aside for independently-owned small businesses. The proposal would allow small companies controlled by large venture capital firms to pursue those grants. Congressman Sam Graves.
This would allow them to go after both avenues, and it's very important that we allow them every opportunity to be able to succeed, Graves said. There's just huge advances being made in biotechnology research right now and I want to, you know, foster that.
In response to a similar bill before Congress last year, the Small Business Technology Council opposed the bill.
The council-the nation's largest organization of small technology-based companies-said that the bill would edge out small businesses.