Sponsors (6)
The bill creates a targeted 10% tax incentive to spur private research on fentanyl, methamphetamine, and similar drug threats — boosting researcher incentives and small-business R&D funding while limiting benefits to pre‑revenue startups, potentially excluding some clinical trials, creating eligibility uncertainty, and reducing federal revenue.
Researchers and labs working on fentanyl, methamphetamine, and other emerging illicit-drug threats gain stronger financial incentives to pursue mitigation, prevention, or treatment research.
Small businesses conducting qualifying drug-threat R&D receive a nonrefundable 10% tax credit on eligible expenses, lowering their net R&D costs and encouraging private-sector investment.
Congress and taxpayers gain oversight data because GAO must report after five years on amounts and types of credits awarded, enabling evaluation of the program's effectiveness.
Small, pre‑revenue research businesses and startups without taxable income cannot benefit fully because the 10% credit is nonrefundable, limiting support for early-stage innovators.
Clinical research aimed at treating overdose or addiction may be excluded unless it complies with NIH policies, which could limit support for clinical trials and slow development of patient-facing treatments.
Narrow, chemistry‑based eligibility definitions (e.g., specific structural variants) create compliance uncertainty and potential added costs for researchers and tax preparers trying to determine which work qualifies.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Creates a nonrefundable 10% R&E tax credit for qualifying small businesses' drug-threat mitigation research and defines covered drugs and terms; GAO must report after 5 years.
Creates a new small-business Research & Experimentation tax credit equal to 10% of qualifying expenses for “drug threat mitigation” research, including work on fentanyl, fentanyl-related substances, methamphetamine, and emerging drugs. The bill defines the covered research and drugs (with structural-chemistry language for fentanyl-related substances), makes the credit nonrefundable, and applies to taxable years beginning after enactment. Requires the Government Accountability Office to report to Congress five years after enactment on amounts and types of credits allowed, using anonymized data and taking steps not to impede ongoing research.
Introduced July 21, 2025 by Joseph Neguse · Last progress July 21, 2025