US vs China: Who Will Lead the Future of Biotechnology?
When we talk about innovations in the field of biotechnology, itโs no longer about the US dominance alone. With decades of research, a quiet shift has been built across the Pacific, the US vs China biotech race is redefining the global innovation landscape. The future of Biotech is no longer just about the world learning from the West.ย
Over the past decade, China has been an emerging player in the world of biotechnology. With new startups, accelerating drug approvals, and signing major licensing deals with Western firms, China is competing head-on with Western countries. Does this mean America is losing its biotech edge?
According to the CEO of Lumen Bioscience, Brian Finrow, the answer to this question is โNOโ. However, he also emphasizes that America should understand whatโs really happening.ย
In his recent analysis, Finrow argues that Chinaโs biotech boom is not driven by scientific breakthroughs or mysterious innovation. Instead, itโs powered by a formula Beijing has mastered in other sectors. The mantra is simple: scale, cost efficiency, and relentless execution.
The China Playbook: Turning Science into Scale
From steel to solar panels to lithium-ion batteries, China has repeatedly taken once cutting-edge industries and industrialized them at breathtaking speed.ย
Steel production? Now, over half the worldโs output comes from China. Solar panels? The country controls roughly 80% of the supply chain. Batteries? More than 70% of global capacity is Chinese-made.
Finrow believes biotech is following the same pattern. Much of drug development today, from small-molecule chemistry to monoclonal antibody production, has become standardized. The science is public, the patents have expired, and the process has been industrialized. Once that happens, cost and scale become the competitive edge, and China excels at both.
โChina thrives when technologies move from discovery to commoditization,โ Finrow explains. โIn biotech, thatโs happening right now.โ
The โMe Tooโ Moment in Drug Development
One symptom of this shift is what Finrow calls target herding, dozens of companies chasing the same biological targets. In 2020, nearly 70% of leading pharma pipelines had at least five programs pursuing identical targets, up from just 16% two decades earlier.
Take the global GLP-1 boom. Since Novo Nordiskโs Ozempic rewrote the rules on obesity drugs, more than 60 GLP-1 analogs have entered Chinese clinical trials alone. Each has small changes in formula or dosage, but most are just slight variations of existing drugs.
This is not the hallmark of innovation. Itโs the signal of a maturing, commoditized field. And in that environment, Chinaโs ability to deliver faster, cheaper, and at scale becomes a formidable advantage.
Still, Finrow points out that this isnโt all bad news. Healthy competition can lower costs, improve access to treatments, and sometimes even spark unexpected breakthroughs, like when Novo Nordisk transformed a daily GLP-1 drug into a more effective weekly version.
Regulatory Reform: Chinaโs Secret Accelerator
Biotech boom in China did not happen by chance. It was powered by smart regulatory reform. In 2015, China revamped its entire drug-approval system. It hired hundreds of new reviewers, aligned with international standards, and cleared a massive backlog of 20,000 applications.
By 2019, nearly 75% of all drug submissions were fast-tracked under priority review. Clinical trials became quicker and cheaper, supported by extensive hospital networks and large pools of willing participants. This flexible and adaptive approach turned regulation, once a barrier,ย into a powerful advantage.
In contrast, American biotech firms still face long approval timelines, complex review systems, and high costs. The difference is striking, and itโs a clear wake-up call for the U.S. biotech industry in the US vs China competition.
What should be the US path ahead?
Can the US win in this race? According to Finrow, the answer is clear. The US should not try to outscale or outsubsidize China. The US needs to do what it does best, and that is reinventing the game.ย
That means focusing on scientific frontiers that are not yet commoditized, from RNA and gene-editing technologies to AI-enabled synthetic biology and new therapeutic modalities. It also means reforming domestic regulatory and manufacturing bottlenecks that slow the journey from discovery to patient.
โAmericaโs strength has always been its capacity for reinvention,โ Finrow writes. โWe shouldnโt fear Chinaโs scale, we should focus on building the next revolution theyโll someday try to scale.โ
A Global Perspective: Cooperation and Competition Can Coexist
In the end, the US vs China biotech story isnโt a zero-sum race. Chinaโs efficiency can make therapies more affordable across the world. Whereas, US biotech innovations continue to open new scientific frontiers.ย
Each countries play the game with its strengths and weaknesses, where one empowers its production, the other works on innovative breakthroughs in Biotechnology.
The risk for the US is not losing to China. Itโs standing still. The future belongs to those who are willing to move first, not fastest. As Finrow says, the key is simple. Donโt play catch-up, leap ahead.ย
Because in the world of biotech, progress favors not the largest, but the most adaptable one.ย
