Life Sciences R&D Credit

Many life sciences companies fail to capture the full extent of their R&D tax credits because they overlook qualifying work that happens outside of traditional R&D departments. Prototyping, process development, and testing often occur on the plant floor, and these activities are just as eligible as those in a state-of-the-art laboratory.

The credit is designed to reward the systematic process of experimentation required to develop or improve products and processes. If your company operates in the pharmaceutical, biotech, medical device, or biomedical sectors, you are constantly working to resolve technical uncertainty—whether it's proving a drug's efficacy, designing a novel surgical tool, or scaling up a manufacturing process.

Qualifying R&D activities often fall into several key areas of innovation:

Discovery & Pre-Clinical Research
This includes the foundational work required before a product can be tested in humans.

Identifying new biological targets and developing novel chemical or biological entities.
Conducting in-vitro and in-vivo testing to assess a product's initial safety and efficacy.
Developing and validating new bioanalytical assays and testing methods.

Clinical & Device Development
This category covers the engineering and testing of new therapies and medical technologies.

Designing and developing protocols for clinical trials (Phases I-III).
Creating and testing prototypes for new medical devices or surgical instruments.
Experimenting with new materials for biocompatibility, durability, or function.
Developing software or firmware that is integral to a medical device's operation.

Manufacturing & Process Improvement
This focuses on the technical challenges of producing life science products consistently and at scale.

Developing or improving processes for scaling up the manufacturing of a drug or biologic.
Creating new purification techniques to improve product yield or purity.
Designing and implementing new automation for production, quality control, or testing.

From the lab bench to the production line, nearly every technical step in bringing a life science innovation to market involves qualifying R&D activities.