Biden Administration Launches National Biotechnology Initiative

President Biden recently signed an Executive Order launching a National Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Initiative, which will assist in accelerating biotechnology innovation and grow America’s bioeconomy across multiple sectors.

“The United States has relied too heavily on foreign materials and bioproduction, and our past off shoring of critical industries, including biotechnology, threatens our ability to access materials like important chemicals and active pharmaceutical ingredients,” says the White House in a statement. “By responsibly harnessing the full potential of biotechnology and biomanufacturing, we will be able to realize the potential of biology that can make almost anything that we use in our day-to-day lives, from medicines to fuels to plastics, and continue to drive U.S. innovation into economic and societal success.”

This initiative has many goals, including growing domestic biomanufacturing capacities, expanding market opportunities for bio-based products, driving research and development, streamlining regulations for biotech products, and improving access to quality federal data.

Additionally, the White House states that the initiative will protect the U.S.’ biotechnology ecosystem by advancing privacy standards and cybersecurity for biological data. They also seek to prioritize investments in applied biosafety research to reduce risk throughout biotech research and development lifecycles.

“These advances have led industry to embrace biomanufacturing—as an alternative to petrochemical-based production—to make things like plastics, fuels, materials, and medicines. Industry analysis suggests that bioengineering could account for more than a third of global output of manufacturing industries before the end of the decade—almost $30 trillion in terms of value," says the White House statement.

All these efforts are employed in an attempt to build a thriving and secure global bioeconomy. Additionally, the White House release states the U.S. will assist international cooperation to address challenges in health security. The initiative also seeks to create more US jobs within the biotech sector, and create a diverse, skilled workforce with more educational opportunities within biotechnology and biomanufacturing, with a focus on advancing racial and gender equity and supporting talent from underserved communities.

More information about this release is available on the White House website.