Impact of the Tax Plan on Gene and Cell Therapy

Both chambers of the United States Congress ushered through a bill to drastically transform American tax policy. That reconciled bill was signed by the president with a couple of added provisions that both maintain conditions for graduate researchers and maintains half of the Orphan Drug Tax Credit, a research incentive used to develop groundbreaking treatments for rare diseases.

Earlier in the reconciliation process, ASGCT president Dr. Helen Heslop and Government Relations Committee chair Dr. Rachel Salzman sent a letter to the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and member of the reconciliation committee for the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The letter calls upon Sen. Hatch to save the ODTC as part of his long history as an advocate for rare disease research.

When the House of Representative first aimed to eliminate the tax credit entirely, ASGCT signed onto a letter sent to House leaders signed by over 200 rare disease patient organizations opposing repeal of the ODTC. Additionally, the Trainee committee issued a position statement about how the tax bill would hurt graduate students who receive tuition waivers from their universities: Why the House Tax Plan on Tuition Waivers is Bad for Science and for America.

Read ASGCT's Response to the Tax Law

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