Former ambassador: China is winning the biotech race. Patent reform is how we catch up

The United States risks losing one of the most important technological races of the 21st century: biotechnology. A 2025 report from a bipartisan, congressionally chartered commission warns that China is on the verge of victory and that the United States has a short window to respond.

The report, issued by the National Commission on the Safety of Emerging Biotechnologies, makes dozens of recommendations, ranging from increasing federal investment and expanding domestic manufacturing to reducing reliance on Chinese suppliers and improving interagency coordination. But there is one issue that has received far too little attention. If the United States wants to compete, it must restore trust in intellectual property so that inventors can turn bold ideas into revolutionary products.

Patents make high-risk innovations economically viable. They enable startups to protect their discoveries, attract capital and grow. Without secure patent rights, promising research is shelved—or filed and advanced abroad.

This is not theoretical. The United States has led past waves of innovation—such as the explosion of biotech startups after Bayh—Dole The 1980 Act and the wave of inventions of the 19th century brought us telephones and automobiles—precisely because it gave inventors clear, enforceable intellectual property rights.

In biotech, the stakes are higher. The field is changing how we treat disease, grow food and manufacture products ranging from chemicals to advanced materials. As AI accelerates discovery, its speed is increasing exponentially. As the committee points out, tools such as AlphaFold Googledeep thinking Hundreds of millions of protein structures can now be simulated in days, a task that once took years.

China sees this future. For more than two decades, China has regarded biotechnology as a national strategic priority, investing heavily in research, building vast biomanufacturing capabilities, and acquiring foreign intellectual property through legal and illegal means.

Today, Chinese companies produce many of the ingredients that U.S. drugmakers rely on. According to the committee, nearly 80% of U.S. drugmakers rely on Chinese contractors for parts of their supply chains.

In a crisis, this dependence could leave Americans without access to critical medicines. The committee outlined a situation in which Chinese researchers developed a breakthrough cancer treatment but suspended it during the crisis in Taiwan.

Supply chains collapse. Doctors ration care. The White House faces an impossible choice: stick with foreign policy or secure access to life-saving drugs.

The situation is fictional, but the threat is real.

It doesn’t stop there. The report warns that if China persists on its current path, it could soon control the biodata, manufacturing platforms and artificial intelligence tools that drive the next generation of industrial and defense technologies.

When innovation stays American, so does protecting the jobs, data, and supply chains for our citizens. If the technologies that define the future are developed under hostile regimes, the United States risks becoming dependent on foreign powers not only for its products but also for its strategic capabilities. Falling behind won’t just mean losing U.S. market share. This would jeopardize national security and global influence.

The Committee is right to emphasize the need to strengthen the domestic biotechnology industry. But unless we lay the foundations for innovation from the start, efforts to achieve this goal will fall short.

This foundation of our intellectual property system is under severe pressure. Over the past decade, court decisions have blurred the lines of what constitutes patent protection (i.e., “patent-eligible”), particularly in the fields of medical diagnostics, synthetic biology, and artificial intelligence research.

Even when patents are granted, protecting them becomes more difficult. A little-known administrative agency, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), lets large companies repeatedly try to invalidate competitors’ patents, forcing startups into expensive and drawn-out legal battles.

At the same time, a 2006 Supreme Court ruling made it more difficult for courts to issue legal orders called injunctions—which prevent infringers from continuing to use someone else’s invention—even in cases of clear wrongdoing.

These trends can have a chilling effect. Investors are reluctant to fund scientific research unless they can rely on the underlying intellectual property. In biotech, where it can take billions of dollars and more than a decade to develop a product, this hesitation can stifle an entire pipeline of innovation.

The good news is that Congress has the tools to change course. Three bipartisan proposals in the House and Senate would help. A bill would restore clarity to patent eligibility criteria. Another measure is to reform the PTAB process to curb repeated challenges to patents. The third measure would make it easier for courts to stop infringers by issuing injunctions.

Together, these reforms will reduce uncertainty, restore balance, and make the United States a more attractive place to innovate and invest.

We still have significant advantages: world-class research institutions, deep capital markets, and free markets that reward bold ideas. But as the committee warns, our lead is slipping — and time is running out. To stay ahead of the race for biotech dominance, we need to repair the intellectual property system that makes American innovation possible.