President Alberto Fernández sent this Friday to Congress the Draft Law for the Promotion of the Development and Production of Modern Biotechnology and Nanotechnologywhich extends until 2037 the validity of the regime that grants tax benefits for the industry and expand your reach to activities that incorporate nanotechnology.
The three previous calls have already granted benefits of $590 million to registered companies, reported the Ministry of Productive Development.
“Argentina is among the top 20 countries in the world with the largest number of biotech companies, with more than 200 companies locally. Half were created from Law 26,270 of 2007, for the Development and Production of Modern Biotechnology, sanctioned during the government of Néstor Kirchner, whose validity ends this year”, highlighted the Minister of Productive Development, Matías Kulfas, in a release.
In addition, he highlighted that “The objective of the Nanobiotechnology Law is to promote innovative industries that apply biotechnology and nanotechnology to their products, such as human and animal health, agriculture, the environment and renewable energiesamong other”.
“Argentina is among the top 20 countries in the world with the largest number of biotech companies, with more than 200 companies locally. Half were created from Law 26,270 of 2007, for the Development and Production of Modern Biotechnology, sanctioned during the government of Néstor Kirchner, whose validity ends this year “Matias Kulfas
The new law contemplates that those who access the promotion regime will be able to obtain benefits of accelerated amortization of the Income Tax in one installment, early return of VAT and the granting of a tax credit bonus corresponding to 50% of the expenses paid destined for the contracting of research and development (R&D) services with institutions of the National Public System of Science, Technology and Innovation.
The three calls (2019-2020-2021) of the Modern Biotechnology Promotion Regime have already granted benefits of $590 million to registered companies.
For her part, the Undersecretary of Knowledge Economy, María Apólito, highlighted that “biotechnology and nanotechnology are some of the main sources of technological innovation and productive transformation”, and considered that “therefore it is a preponderant factor for the process growth and development of the national economy.
“It is an area that serves as a technological platform for numerous disciplines and productive sectors,” said the official.
Regarding the inclusion of nanotechnology, in Argentina there is an important emergence of the sector, whose field includes all technological application of the set of techniques and sciences in which materials, substances and substances are studied, manipulated and obtained in a controlled manner. devices of nanometric dimensions (tiny), which have special properties due to their size.
Being an area of horizontal and multipurpose development, of the knowledge economy, it can generate advances and new technologies for productive sectors, such as health, textiles, microelectronics, industrial, chemical and agro-industrial, among others.
An example of the growing relevance of the sector is in the field of health, which, through the use of biotechnology, has shown great response capacity during the Covid-19 pandemic, placing Argentina among the countries with the highest potential for the development of biotechnological solutions such as diagnostic kits, treatment with hyperimmune equine serum and initial development of vaccines.
