November 13, 2024

YOUNG OP-ED: Age of biology requires American leadership

The following column by Senator Todd Young (R-Ind.) was originally published in Roll Call on November 13, 2024.

By Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.)

Recent reporting revealed that Russia is rebuilding a major research center for biological weapons. Meanwhile, China is deeply embedded in our critical biotech supply chains, giving the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) the ability to wreak economic havoc on our people and markets.

These are just two examples of how emerging biotechnologies — from novel therapeutics to agricultural advances to defense applications — have the capability to reshape our economy and national security. 

If the United States does not lead in this area, our adversaries will, risking a future in which biotechnology undermines — rather than supports — our global priorities. 

I serve as the chair of the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology (NSCEB), a bipartisan group of lawmakers and policy experts working to assess the opportunities and threats presented by these technologies. Next year, we will publish a report for Congress that details actions needed to maintain and strengthen America’s global leadership position.

Our critical biotechnology supply chains are compromised

Currently, the United States has a biotechnology supply chain problem. American biotech companies rely on cheap, fast products and services from Chinese companies, a vulnerability that the BIOSECURE Act, which recently passed the House, will help rectify. 

The CCP knows this and sees biotechnology as an economic battleground with the West. They’re playing to win, and often playing dirty by stealing the intellectual property of innovative American companies and labs. 

Accelerating biotechnology innovation at home

We could make our critical biotechnology supply chains more resilient and create thousands of good jobs in America by following a simple principle: More of what’s invented in the U.S. should be made in the U.S. 

Places like my home state of Indiana have much to gain from a stronger domestic biotechnology sector. Proactively sustaining our biotechnology industries will grow our economy and improve the lives and health of our people.

Through proper skills training, Americans in every state can have a path to a good career in biotechnology. It also means supporting upskilling programs to help people in other industries transition to better-paying jobs in biotech.

And we must get the red tape out of the way of our biotechnology innovators and job creators. It takes too long to bring new biotechnologies to market — let’s streamline that process so American innovators can compete on a global scale.

Working with our allies 

Maintaining our global biotech leadership doesn’t mean going alone. To promote American biotech and make sure these disruptive technologies are used for good, we need to work with like-minded allies to set global standards and prevent misuse. This is especially true around the collection and use of high-value biological data. 

The CCP takes an extractive approach to biological data. State-owned companies routinely steal data from American companies and labs. Our privacy laws and civil liberties prevent our government from doing the same, and that’s a good thing. We won’t beat China by acting like China.

Our advantage is in our private sector, which the government can do more to appropriately support. We can also team up with allied countries through data-sharing agreements. And we can create connective tissue between biobanks across the world to produce more diverse genomic data sets and open new doors for bio-innovation. 

Preparing the government to support America’s biotechnology industry

Imagine biomanufacturing better armor for our troops, or our armed forces having the power to rapidly biomanufacture structures and runways in contested war zones. It’s not science fiction; it’s a future we should be working for now by accelerating biotechnology discovery and development for specific defense and intelligence applications.

Right now, the federal government is not prepared to help our country win the global biotechnology competition. Too often, it is getting in the way of our innovators and making it easier for China to steal our companies’ inventions. 

The government must use its existing resources to support our biotechnology companies, workers, and researchers. This means horizon scanning for emerging technologies, and restructuring federal agencies and regulations to support rather than obstruct emerging biotechnologies.

It’s time to promote and protect American biotechnology

Congress must enact policies that accelerate innovations at home, onshore our supply chains, create data-sharing agreements with our allies, and support our military’s use of novel biotechnologies. Broadly, this will be the focus of the NSCEB’s forthcoming Final Report in 2025.

Policymakers must protect and promote American biotechnology to ensure the United States leads the Age of Biology, and I am confident the NSCEB will contribute to these efforts.

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