IowaBio participated in the BIO Fly-in to Washington D.C. April 1-2. We were among 31 biotech organizations who came together from across the country to visit capitol hill (and witness D.C.’s famous cherry blossoms blooming), bringing forward a message of the importance of biotechnology and how to best foster it through federal policies.

Our membership was well-represented by a breadth of companies representing our various industry sectors, including animal health, food and agriculture, large and small pharma, and biofuels. This unique representation allowed IowaBio to highlight issues that affect our whole membership, and individual industries. We were able to visit with five of our six Senate and Congressional offices during our busy day on the hill.

We discussed funding for startups including reauthorization of the SBIR/STTR program, and R&D tax credit amortization. We discussed industry-specific topics like 45z tax credit extension for sustainable aviation fuel, animal disease preparedness, drug pricing issues such as fixing the “pill penalty” in the IRA, the EPIC act, as well as support for biomanufacturing.  April 2 also happened to be the day President Trump announced his tariff plan on the Whitehouse lawn, so our members also fielded questions about potential impacts of changing trade policy on their businesses.

Thank you to BIO for convening the is important meeting, and to each of our member company attendees for stepping up to represent IowaBio: Kent Hartwig (Gevo), Joe Hrdlicka (Genentech), Tom Swegle (MedCara), Beth Breeding (Boehringer Ingelheim), and Trey Elizondo (Cargill). Thank you to our Senators and Representatives for their time and conversation. We certainly value the relationships and leadership from our delegation, and look forward to continuing to work with them to grow our biotech economy.