Charles R. Goulding and Preeti Sulibhavi demonstrate how biotech is getting a boost from stronger pharma buyers, smarter use of 3D printing, and new OBBBA tax incentives that make early-stage R&D far easier to fund.

Biotech has always been a hard industry to build in. Long development cycles, years without revenue, and heavy technical risk can make the field look unpredictable from the outside. But the environment around biotech has changed. The financial strength of large pharmaceutical companies is at historic levels, the shift to U.S. manufacturing is underway, and new tax rules under the recently passed OBBBA have made early R&D far easier to finance.

Those changes matter for any young biotech. They also matter for companies leaning heavily on 3D printing to move faster through design, prototyping, and production. When capital, manufacturing support, and tax incentives line up, early-stage engineering becomes a lot more efficient.

Here’s what the new landscape looks like — and why it could support a stronger generation of biotech and bio-fabrication companies.

A Strong Buyer Base at the End of the Pipeline

In late 2025, Barron’s columnist Peter Kolchinsky noted that large-cap pharma has enough free cash flow to buy every publicly traded biotech at a major premium in just a few years. The exact timeframe changes with markets, but the message is clear: big pharma is flush with cash and hungry for outside innovation.

That’s good news for startups. Most biotechs don’t become fully integrated pharma companies. They advance a molecule, platform, or tool until it shows clinical or commercial promise and then exit through acquisition. When the likely buyers have strong cash flow and a need for new programs, those exit paths open up.

On top of that, U.S. pharma has been building and expanding domestic manufacturing capacity. These facilities take time to come online, but once they do, they tend to improve margins and reduce supply risk. Both outcomes give large companies more financial room to invest in external development. When manufacturing shifts closer to home, the industry becomes more stable — and more capable of supporting smaller innovators.

A Market That Has Recovered in a Healthier Way

The collapse from late 2021 through mid-2022 was rough. Valuations crashed, IPOs stopped, and many early biotechs were forced into layoffs or program cuts. But the recovery since then has been steady and more grounded. The companies raising capital today tend to have solid science, measured spend, and clear milestones.

That correction created a healthier market. It filtered out weak programs and forced teams to run in a more disciplined way. The sector that remains is smaller, but stronger.

And across that sector, 3D printing has quietly become a standard tool rather than an experimental one.

3D Printing’s Expanding Role in Biotech

We’ve covered 3D printing in biotech many times on Fabbaloo — including applications from Cellink, the Wyss Institute, and a range of platform companies — and the trend is well established. Additive tools speed up development, reduce cost, and make lab work more flexible.

Common uses now include:

• Microfluidic systems printed in-house, letting teams test flow dynamics, drug gradients, or organ-on-chip designs without long fabrication delays.
• Custom bioreactor and bench hardware, from impeller geometries to tube mounts to brackets that fit unique equipment layouts.
• Bioprinted** tissues**, used for early screening and validation, which can reduce animal studies and speed regulatory preparation.
• High-resolution resin prints for optics, imaging stages, and fluid control components.

What used to require machining, outsourcing, or multi-week waits can now be done overnight. That speed forces a cultural shift. Teams run more experiments, generate more data per dollar spent, and adjust programs earlier. In an industry where burn rate and time-to-proof matter more than anything, that flexibility can mean survival.

New Incentives Under the OBBBA

The OBBBA was passed with two major benefits for biotech R&D:

1. Restored full and immediate expensing of R&D costs, instead of the older requirement to amortize R&D over five years.
2. Three years of retroactive R&D credit eligibility, allowing companies to claim credits they would have earned if full expensing had been in place during those years.

These provisions make a practical difference, especially for R&D-heavy biotechs that often run large research budgets long before they generate revenue.

Here’s what the incentive landscape now looks like.

Startup Payroll Offset: The Cash-Flow Lifeline

This rule remains one of the most powerful tools for young biotechs:

• Less than US$5 million in gross receipts in the current year
• Within the first five years of having gross receipts

Companies meeting these requirements can apply up to US$500,000 of their R&D credit each year against payroll taxes. Over five years, that’s up to US$2.5 million in real cash savings.

For startups with a big scientific headcount — which describes most biotechs — this is often the difference between hiring another scientist or shelving a project.

Traditional R&D Credits and Retroactive Claims

Under OBBBA:

• Companies can once again expense all R&D spending in the year it occurs.
• They can claim three years of retroactive R&D credits, which become available as soon as the company generates taxable income.
• Credits can still be carried forward for up to 20 years, with no cap.

This is a meaningful change. Before the OBBBA, with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) rules, many biotechs had large, deferred R&D deductions and credit carryforwards but no clear way to use them. With full expensing restored, the tax benefit matches the timing of the work. And the retroactive window lets companies unlock past credits that were effectively stuck.

For a biotech transitioning from pre-revenue to commercial stage, the first taxable year can now deliver a sizable tax reduction, because those retroactive credits all become usable at once.

Safe Harbor Methods for Simpler Audits

OBBBA did not remove the existing IRS safe harbor methods, which still help certain biotech companies reduce audit risk. These include simplified methods for calculating qualified research expenses and safe harbors for software-related R&D, contract research, and certain process development work.

Many companies adopt specialized accounting elections to take advantage of these provisions. When used correctly, they shorten audits and provide clearer documentation standards.

The Research and Development Tax Credit and 3D Printing

The now permanent Research and Development (R&D) Tax Credit is available for companies developing new or improved products, processes, and/or software. 3D printing can help boost a company’s R&D Tax Credits. Wages for technical employees creating, testing, and revising 3D-printed prototypes can be included as a percentage of the eligible time spent on the R&D Tax Credit. Similarly, when used as a method of improving a process, time spent integrating 3D printing hardware and software counts as an eligible activity. Lastly, when used for modeling and preproduction, the costs of filaments consumed during the development process may also be recovered.

Whether it is used for creating and testing prototypes or for final production, 3D printing is a great indicator that R&D Credit-eligible activities are taking place. Companies implementing this technology at any point should consider taking advantage of R&D Tax Credits.

Why This Matters for 3D Printing in Biotech

The combination of:

• a strong acquisition market
• healthier capital conditions
• faster in-house engineering through 3D printing
• and now, with OBBBA, more generous and immediate R&D tax relief creates a better environment for startups working at the intersection of biology and fabrication.

Additive tools reduce costs. The tax changes reduce costs. And strong pharma buyers reduce exit uncertainty. When those factors move in the same direction, the risk profile for early-stage biotech shifts.

For teams building bioprinters, tissue platforms, custom lab hardware, or printed consumables, the new tax rules can accelerate development. Many of these companies run large engineering budgets years before revenue arrives. Full expensing and retroactive credits give them more room to hire, test, and iterate.

Final Thoughts

Biotech will always be demanding. It takes time, money, and persistence to turn an idea into something that can help patients. But the broader environment has improved. Pharma companies are in a position to buy innovation. The market has stabilized. 3D printing is saving time and money across labs. And with the OBBBA in place, early-stage R&D is now cheaper and easier to finance.

Anything that helps these companies move faster is good for the people who need the technologies they’re building. And that’s a positive trend for everyone.