China outpacing US in biotech race: Report

Washington, June 12 (IANS) China is moving aggressively to dominate biotechnology and is already implementing many of the policies recommended by a US national security commission, raising concerns that Washington could lose its long-held leadership in a sector increasingly seen as critical to economic and military power.

A new analysis released on Thursday by the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology (NSCEB) said the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is advancing biotechnology across five key areas identified in the commission’s April 2025 action plan: national strategy, regulation, infrastructure, investment and data.

The report argues that Beijing is moving faster than Washington in translating biotechnology ambitions into government policy and industrial capacity.

“China’s biotech strategy is clear, and it’s a playbook we have seen before—corner the market, scale the technology, and then strangle supply chains to gain strategic advantages,” NSCEB Chair Senator Todd Young said.

“The Chinese government is leveraging biotechnology policy more effectively than the United States, and we are starting to fall behind on innovation and scale-up,” he said.

According to the commission, China has treated biotechnology as a national priority for two decades and has reinforced that commitment in its 2026 Five-Year Plan. The plan identifies biomedicine, biomanufacturing, brain-computer interface technologies and pharmaceuticals as strategic sectors, placing them alongside artificial intelligence and quantum computing.

The United States still lacks a national biotechnology strategy, although bipartisan lawmakers introduced legislation in 2025 aimed at coordinating biotechnology policy at the federal level, it said.

The commission also highlighted China’s regulatory advantages. It said reforms implemented over the past decade have created a two-track system for drugs and medical products that speeds up approvals and allows researchers to obtain preliminary human data more quickly.

As a result, China led the world in the number of clinical trials launched annually by 2024, according to the report. It added that several US-based pharmaceutical companies now conduct first-in-human trials in China.

The report pointed to growing differences in manufacturing capacity as well. While Congress has appropriated funding for bioindustrial facilities under the BioMADE programme, the commission noted that none of the three announced facilities are yet operational.

China, meanwhile, announced public-private partnerships with 43 companies in 2025 to build biomanufacturing pilot plants nationwide.

The commission also cited Beijing’s extensive use of government-backed investment vehicles to support strategic industries and its efforts to treat biological data as a national resource for training artificial intelligence systems and accelerating biotechnology development.

“US policymakers have moved forward on more than half of the NSCEB’s recommendations over the last year, but we have more to do,” Young said.

“Some of our boldest ideas – from regulatory streamlining to manufacturing infrastructure – are not yet implemented. This is a race we cannot afford to lose. We urge swift action on the NSCEB’s roadmap to secure America’s global biotechnology leadership.”

The report also warned that biotechnology has direct national security implications. It said China is seeking to integrate biotechnology into its warfighting capabilities and that advances in the field could strengthen Chinese military power.

Biotechnology has emerged as a major front in the broader US-China competition over advanced technologies. Alongside semiconductors, artificial intelligence and quantum computing, biotechnology is increasingly viewed by both governments as essential to future economic growth, healthcare innovation and national security.

The NSCEB was created by Congress to assess the national security implications of emerging biotechnology and recommend policies to strengthen US competitiveness. Its 2025 action plan called for a coordinated national strategy, faster regulation, expanded manufacturing capacity, greater investment and stronger biological data infrastructure.

–IANS

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