Beijing has designated biotechnology as a national pillar industry in an explicit bid to overtake the United States as the global sector leader. In response, domestic industry leadership is calling for an urgent, comprehensive strategy to safeguard a critical innovation pipeline that underpins both healthcare access and biological defense capabilities. The domestic sector forms a vast, interconnected network that stretches from university laboratories and startups to clinical trial systems and advanced manufacturing facilities. Because this entire infrastructure bolsters national defense against biological threats and pandemics, coordinated action across all components is deemed necessary t…
Key points
A comprehensive domestic strategy across the entire innovation pipeline is required to co…: A comprehensive domestic strategy across the entire innovation pipeline is required to counter targeted competition from China.
Maintaining biotech leadership is essential for securing domestic economic stability and…: Maintaining biotech leadership is essential for securing domestic economic stability and preserving advanced manufacturing growth.
Strong biotechnology capabilities are vital for ensuring access to novel medicines and de…: Strong biotechnology capabilities are vital for ensuring access to novel medicines and defending against emerging biological threats.
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China just announced a new five-year plan that designates biotechnology as a national “pillar industry” and aims to displace the United States as the world’s biotech leader. Those ambitions threaten one of America’s defining competitive advantages — and they demand an urgent response.
America’s biotech sector supports nearly 10 million jobs and over $3 trillion in annual economic activity. It fuels advanced manufacturing growth, ensures our loved ones have access to the newest and most groundbreaking medicines, and strengthens our defenses against pandemics and biological threats. Losing our biotech lead would mean losing a pillar of both our economy and our national security.
Yet biotech innovation also depends on numerous interconnected players — from the university laboratories and startups that often pioneer new research to the trial networks and manufacturing facilities that bring medicines to patients. That means there’s no single policy that will protect our lead. Instead, we need a plan that strengthens every facet of our biotech ecosystem.
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