“… It’s not one of missiles and tanks. It’s of laboratories and lifesaving medications. It’s a war right now with China on American innovation and biotechnology,” recently said Chris Klomp, a top assistant to Robert F. Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary. As in artificial intelligence (AI), the biotechnology/pharmaceuticals (biopharma) sector has become another arena of great power competition between China and the US. In recent years, China has accounted for 34% of roughly 14,088 new drugs in global clinical development, surpassing the US’s 27% share. It also produces 40% of the world’s new drug candidates entering clinical trials each year, again outpacing the US. China’s growing strength in new drug development, ironically, is accompanied by the US’s heavy dependence on China for active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) used in drugs.

Full report : China is emerging as a biotech powerhouse, but its rise is entwined with US drugmakers through research, licensing and supply chains, making decoupling far more difficult than in AI.