US report warns of ‘frightening’ China biotech rise, urges action to boost local industry

A US congressional commission has urged lawmakers to take action to counter China’s “frightening” ascent in biotechnology, flagging Chinese firms including WuXi AppTec and BioMap, as the tech rivalry between the two major powers continues to escalate.

China was “quickly ascending to biotechnology dominance” and the US must “take swift action in the next three years” to maintain its competitiveness, the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology (NSCEB) said in a report published on Wednesday. It described the conclusion as “sobering, even frightening”, following two years of research.

China has recently achieved success across “core biotechnology capabilities”, including drug discovery driven by artificial intelligence (AI) and what it calls “biomanufacturing”, according to the NSCEB.

The three-year-old commission cited Chinese start-up BioMap as an example of the country’s efforts in AI-enabled biotech, noting its 100+ billion-parameter foundational model and an investment from the Hong Kong government.

“China’s leading biomanufacturers” such as WuXi AppTec then scaled up biological products with its global network of facilities, allowing the Chinese government to “control a global supply chain”, the commission said, adding that WuXi AppTec was the “Huawei equivalent for biotechnology”.

With such advances, China may soon “eclipse” the US, which “may never be able to catch up”, the commission claimed.