Biotech Company Gets Affordable Care Act Grant

(National Cancer Institute)

Cancer diagnostics company Biomoda Inc. in Albuquerque, New Mexico says it received a grant of more than $244,000 under a provision in Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, known popularly as the Affordable Care Act. The grant will fund pilot and later-stage clinical trials of the company’s CyPath diagnostic assay for the detection of early-stage lung cancer.

The Affordable Care Act adds to Section 48D of the Internal Revenue Code a provision called the Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Project Credit. This credit funds projects that show potential to result in new therapies for unmet medical needs, prevent, detect, or treat chronic or acute diseases and conditions, reduce long-term health care costs in the United States, or significantly advance the goal of curing cancer.

The bill specifies pre-clinical activities and clinical trials as among the projects eligible under this provision. Companies can take grants as the mechanism for funding rather than a tax credit.

Biomoda’s CyPath technology for the early detection of cancers binds to cancer cells and fluoresces under specific light frequencies. Biomoda is seeking Food and Drug Administration approval of its cytology (cell biology)-based screening technology as a Class III medical device.