NSBA and our Small Business Technology Council (SBTC) are privileged to lead the fight for SBIR/STTR permanency.
NSBA and our Small Business Technology Council (SBTC) are privileged to lead the fight for SBIR/STTR permanency.
JUNE 04, 2026 | An economic analysis of drugs and medical devices conducted by the Small Business Technology Council (SBTC) shows the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs play a pivotal role in supporting several of the most successful FDA-approved pharmaceutical and medical technologies over the past two decades.
According to a study performed by The National Academies of Science (NAS) into the NIH SBIR/STTR program, between 1996 and 2020, over 100 drugs approved by the FDA were developed by firms that received SBIR/STTR awards.
SBTC ran an analysis cross referencing these SBIR/STTR-suported drugs with public records, finding 21 instances contributing to a combined $36 billion in annual sales, demonstrating the extraordinary market impact of early-stage federal innovation support.
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Three SBIR/STTR-supported drugs ranked among the top 20 highest-selling drugs in the United States, finishing at 5th, 11th, and 18th based on their most recent annual commercial revenues. Further analysis shows similar results in the medical device sector.
The same NAS study found that, between 1996 and 2020, 34 Premarket Approval Applications (PMAs) and 2,475 510K premarket submissions for medical devices were made by firms that received SBIR/STTR awards. These firms brought technologies to market generating over $26 billion per year in combined annual sales.
These medical devices include innovations widely used in cardiology, oncology, neurology, metabolic disorders, diabetes, genetic screening, and advanced surgical care.
This analysis highlights the enormous economic impact that the NIH’s SBIR/STTR programs have in the pharmaceutical and medical device sectors. The critical funding the programs award to fund early-stage research conducted by high-tech small businesses ultimately pays enormous benefits and ROI downstream, as well as contributes to the development of life-saving drugs and technology.
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SBIR/STTR continues to prove a cornerstone of biomedical entrepreneurship and an essential part off NIH’s life sciences innovation ecosystem.
Read the full study from SBTC here.
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National Academies of Science: Assessment of the SBIR and STTR Programs at the National Institutes of Health (2022) https://www.nationalacademies.org/projects/PGA-POLICY-19-11
