PRESS | SBIR / STTR-Supported Medical Innovations Generate $60+ Billion in Annual Revenue
- NSBA
- Dec 17, 2025
- 2 min read
NSBA and SBTC stand strong with small business, fighting to reinstate SBIR/STTR programs, urging Congress to act to reauthorize these critical funds driving innovations and research programs today.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Molly Day
Dec. 17, 2025 202-552-2904 | mday@NSBAadvocate.org
Washington, D.C. – The Small Business Technology Council (SBTC), a council of the National Small Business Association (NSBA), recently released an economic analysis showing the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs have played a pivotal role in supporting several of the most successful FDA-approved pharmaceutical and medical technologies over the past two decades.
According to an SBTC analysis of National Academies of Science (NAS) research, between 1996 and 2020, over 100 FDA-approved drugs were supported by the SBIR/STTR program, generating a combined $36 billion in annual sales. Thirty-four Premarket Approval Applications (PMAs) and 2,475 of the 510K premarket submissions for medical devices were made by firms receiving SBIR/STTR awards. These firms brought technologies to market that, today, generate over $26 billion per year in combined annual sales.
See the complete SBTC analysis here.
Unfortunately, for it being a wildly successful program, SBIR remains lapsed and not reauthorized, despite major bipartisan efforts by Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Reps. Roger Williams (R-Texas), Nydia Velazquez (D-N.Y.), Brian Babin (R-Texas), and Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.).
“Looking beyond just the major support and benefits the SBIR/STTR programs pose for small innovators, these programs are hugely beneficial to the overall economy,” Jere Glover, SBTC Executive Director said. “More than that, this program is saving and improving lives with the innovations they back.”
Federal officials know this, too. At the Space Force Association’s recent conference, Maj. Gen. Stephen Purdy, acting space acquisition head for the Department of the Air Force, said SBIR grants have been very beneficial to the Space Force: “My only emphasis is, let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water.”
SBTC and NSBA continue urging lawmakers to pass legislation (H.R. 5100), to extend the SBIR/STTR programs by one year, to keep the programs going while negotiations continue for a longer-term reauthorization.
Click here for more details on the SBIR program.
Celebrating nearly 90 years in operation, NSBA is a member-driven nonpartisan organization advocating on behalf of America’s entrepreneurs, with SBTC focused on small-business technology policy and priority issues. NSBA's 65,000 members represent every state and every industry in the U.S., and we are proud to be the nation’s first small-business advocacy organization. Please visit www.NSBAadvocate.org and follow us at @NSBAAdvocate.
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