American Biosecurity Initiative Releases Policy Agenda to Strengthen U.S. Biotech Leadership as China Gains Ground

Washington (October 22) — Today, the American Biosecurity Initiative released Securing America’s Biotechnology Leadership: A Policy Framework to Enhance U.S. Biosecurity, a new paper outlining actions Congress and federal agencies can take to strengthen American biotechnology amid growing competition from China.

The paper argues that preserving U.S. biotech leadership requires strengthening America’s research, regulatory, and manufacturing capabilities. It warns that sweeping restrictions on investment, commercial partnerships, and supply chains intended to slow China’s rise could undermine America’s own biotech capacity and national security.

“China treats biotechnology as a national security priority, and the United States should too,” said Jennifer Crook, executive director of ABI. “In a pandemic or biological attack, we need the scientific expertise and manufacturing capacity to respond. Those capabilities take years to build. This paper gives Washington a policy agenda to act on now, before a crisis hits.”

The framework sets out three priorities:

• Strengthen America’s research ecosystem so the nation can develop cutting-edge treatments, including countermeasures that mitigate pandemics and biological attacks, faster and better than any adversary.
• Modernize regulations to move at the speed of science so that U.S. companies can efficiently test promising medicines and the FDA can promptly review them, while building clinical trial infrastructure that can scale quickly during emergencies.
• Forge resilient supply chains with trusted partners so no adversary, and no single accident or natural disaster, can cut off Americans, especially service members and first responders, from essential medicines.

“Targeted trade restrictions have an important role in protecting sensitive technologies,” said Gary Locke, former U.S. secretary of commerce and ambassador to China, and a senior adviser to ABI. “But broad restrictions on China could erode key American advantages in biotech and ultimately make it harder for patients to access the medicines they need. We need to keep restrictions strategically focused while strengthening U.S. supply chains and international partnerships that help America stay competitive.”

Among its recommendations, the paper calls for stable NIH funding and protections for U.S.-trained scientific talent; faster clinical trials through more efficient FDA reviews; and stronger medicine supply chains through expanded domestic and allied manufacturing, backup suppliers, and long-term federal purchasing commitments.

“America’s advantage in biotech is the result of a research system that attracts the world’s best scientists and the private investment needed to turn their discoveries into needed medicines,” said Patrick McHenry, former House Financial Services Committee chairman and ABI senior adviser. “Policies that make it harder to finance research or pursue promising discoveries can erode that advantage.”

The full paper is available on ABI’s website.

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