US-China Tensions Hit Biopharma

One of the biggest trends in the US Biopharma space in recent years is investment in the licensing of new drugs from China. A result of years of Chinese investment in biotechnology & life sciences as well as China’s faster path to clinical trials, China has become a global leader in developing innovative new therapies, and Western companies see this.

Given growing Chinese-American geopolitical rivalry, it asks the question: will outsourcing of Biopharma R&D to China result in a similar long-term capacity dependency that the battery, solar, and semiconductor industries experienced?

It’s no small wonder that the US government is wondering the same thing and while ostensibly the proposed rules are more focused on clear national security concerns around bioweapons and toxins, the mention of laboratory automation, “supply chain needs”/“supply chain security”, and “small molecules, polymers, vaccines, blood and blood components, allergenics, cell and gene therapies, and monoclonal antibodies or other recombinant therapeutic proteins… and biofuels” suggests this could go be used to go much further.

Given how increasingly tied our two nations’ life sciences industries are, this rule will be one to watch.