Obamacare’s new-in-2013 medical device tax is killing the potential for new jobs at medical device developers like Malvern’s Fujirebio Diagnostics, according to a Newsworks report.

“We have not laid anyone off or cut jobs, but we had a vision and a mission to create more cancer tests, and the way to do that is to hire more research and development employees. We haven’t been able to do that,” consultant Paul Touhey said in the article.

Instead, the 2.3 percent tax on company sales has diverted $800,000 away from such research and development payroll at the local maker of in vitro diagnostics and biomarkers, and a trade group estimates it will cost more than 30,000 jobs industry-wide.

Touhey and a number of other opponents from both sides of the political aisle recently rallied in Philadelphia for a repeal of the tax. You can find our coverage of PABIO‘s ‘Rally to Repeal’ here.

Read more about the medical device tax, its influence on the industry and efforts in support of its repeal on Newsworks here.

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Top photo courtesy CJ Dawson Photography