The state’s biotechnology industry is now closer to securing federal tax credits to spur its research efforts. U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-Hoboken) has successfully inserted that proposal in the health insurance reform bill.

Specifically, it seeks to provide tax credits to small (biotechnology firms of up to 50 percent of their investments in “qualified therapeutic discovery projects that have the potential to address unmet needs and lower health care costs.”

Some 86 percent of the state’s 240 biotech firms are “emerging companies” that would qualify for this credit, according to a statement from the senator’s office. The credits will be used to create a research fund totaling $1 billion in 2009-10, the statement added.