Cutting China Out of Biotech Unifies Democrats, Republicans
The campus of the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China. Four years after the pandemic began, the US Congress may soon consider legislation meant to insulate the US biotechnology industry.
Photographer: Hector Retamal/AFP
Four years after Covid-19 first appeared in China, Washington is assembling a plan to reduce the US biotechnology industry’s vulnerability to its top geostrategic rival.
“Our biologic supply chain is entirely dependent on China,” said Representative Mike Gallagher, Republican and chair of a House committee set up last year to identify and address risks stemming from the Chinese Communist Party. Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, the panel’s top Democrat, said “we should be taking a whole of government approach” with regard to securing the biotech industry.