Congress and state legislators should look closely at what China announced today. It shows how a country protects the future of an industry while earning money from its present. Beijing proposes to restrict foreign ownership of selected biopharma technologies while preserving routes to license the medicines they produce. International partners can help pay for development. Chinese companies keep the platforms, build knowledge and use licensing income to finance further discovery. Last month, ten Chinese authorities set a goal: at least 25% of the world’s first-in-class drugs should originate in China by 2030. Today’s proposal helps explain how they intend to get there. America needs to understand what it is watching. Too many venture investors and pharmaceutical companies will finance a drug after substantial uncertainty has been removed, yet decline to support the discovery capabilities that produced it. They are harvesting decades of scientific investment without adequately replenishing it. Investors have an obligation to earn returns. Pharmaceutical companies must choose where to commit capital. Some discovery platforms have failed, and calling a company a platform does not make it valuable. But those arguments do not resolve the national problem. If investing in American discovery is less attractive than buying its output elsewhere, capital will follow. Legislators cannot declare biotechnology a strategic industry and then ignore the incentives determining whether its foundations survive. Congress should make sustained investment in domestic discovery more attractive. Tax incentives, matching investment and public-private financing should reward pharmaceutical companies and investors that develop and validate platforms here. Support should depend on scientific evidence and continued investment in American research. Over forty years, in biotech, academic centers and the NIH we have built extraordinary technologies for discovering medicines. Their value resides in people, accumulated knowledge and the ability to keep testing new ideas. When companies close and teams disperse, that capacity is lost. It cannot simply be purchased back when we need it. I believe we risk a serious discovery cliff in three to five years. The pipeline may conceal the damage for a time. Eventually, the missing investment will mean fewer new candidates and greater dependence on discoveries made elsewhere. Accelerating the FDA is necessary. Repairing the damage from last year’s research cuts and disruption is necessary. We also need companies capable of discovering what the FDA will review next. China arranges for international capital to support discovery capabilities it intends to retain. American legislators must give our industry compelling reasons to invest in its own future. Waiting until the pipeline runs thin will be years too late. #china #usa #biotech #pharma