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New Hampshire Life Sciences Association urges R&D tax-credit boost and highlights industry growth
Summary
Andrea Hechavarria, executive director of the New Hampshire Life Sciences Association, told the Science, Technology and Energy Committee the sector now includes about 600 firms and 11,000 jobs and asked legislators to support HB1102, which would raise the state R&D tax-credit caps and overall pool.
Andrea Hechavarria, executive director of the newly formed New Hampshire Life Sciences Association, briefed the Science, Technology and Energy Committee on the association’s mission, membership and near-term legislative priorities.
Hechavarria said the trade group, founded in 2023, represents companies across biotech, medtech, diagnostics and related fields and has grown to about 70 members in roughly 18 months. She highlighted founding members Novocure, Novo Nordisk, Lonza and MilliporeSigma and noted manufacturing and high-wage employment across the state.
The nut graf: Hechavarria urged lawmakers to back HB1102, a bill to expand the state’s R&D tax credit. She said the association seeks increases in both the overall pool and the per-company cap to make the credit more useful for growing bioscience firms.
Citing a 2023 state report based on 2021 data, Hechavarria said the life-sciences sector in New Hampshire comprises roughly 600 companies, about 11,000 jobs and about $4 billion in sales, with an average sector wage of about $130,000. She said the association is working to update those figures and to connect industry with university partners, workforce pipelines and local manufacturers.
On policy, Hechavarria described HB1102 as an effort to raise the overall R&D credit bucket from $7 million to $10 million and to increase the individual company cap from $50,000 to $100,000; association counsel David Cousy said the bill passed the House and is pending Senate action and that the individual cap increase would be implemented for tax year 2028 and the overall cap increase for tax year 2029 if approved.
Hechavarria also described the association’s opposition to a proposed change to an animal-testing bill (SB444) that, she said, had been written in a way that risked prohibiting common biomedical research; she said that bill was sent to interim study. She urged the committee to consider housing, workforce training and stability of university funding as part of a broader strategy to attract life-science manufacturing and talent.
The committee asked about the association’s position on ‘right to try’ expansion and other bills; Hechavarria said NHLS is neutral on that bill but is focused on R&D incentives, workforce development and related supports. She invited members to industry tours and upcoming events and said the association would follow the committee with additional material and updated industry numbers.
No committee vote was held on the organization's requests during the session.
