Biosecure Act

But maybe before we leave China, a lot of, you know, there's a lot of noise now, obviously.

And I know people usually talk, bring up the Biosecure Act.

Which I feel like I have a duty to do since we're talking about this.

And I think in general for startups and for even pharma, I think there's a hesitancy to partner with China because of quote unquote geopolitics, right? Because there's, you know...

That's what creates then this out-licensing opportunity that we're focused on capturing, and this outsized return becomes possible because of that geopolitics.

So I think it's real.

From a Biosecure Act standpoint, Biosecure Act is very focused on sort of use of government money.

So it really isn't that relevant to most of the biotech industry.

And so we are we are that's another area of focus for us is to ensure that U.S. biotech and pharma companies have access to that kind of clinical trial and clinical development infrastructure and remain remain competitive.

Now, but the BioSecure Act was passed last year.

I think it's December 18th.

You're going to have OMB provide a list of Chinese contract organization CDMOs that are then seen as some not worthy partners.

Western governments are intensifying scrutiny of Chinese biotech companies over data security, intellectual property, and national security concerns.

And the Biosecure Act, enacted through the fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, obviously creates new restrictions that affect relationships with designated biotech companies of concern.

And yet, Western pharma companies keep signing major licensing deals with Chinese biotechs because science is generally competitive.

And drug discovery sits at the intersection of AI, IP battles, clinical data, manufacturing, and national health security.

Yeah.

Uh, and then of course, uh, you know, BioSecure, uh, or the threat of BioSecure happened and, uh, you know, we, we won't go into that in this, uh, conversation.

Yeah.

Yeah.

They continued to grow, right? And so they, they-

Right

... still even through BioSecure, right, they hit some record levels, right, uh, revenues and all that.

So, so the idea that, uh, it was, uh, a real, uh, downside really i- it has not happened.

Now this part is quite uncomfortable, right? At precisely the moment pharma companies are becoming more dependent on Chinese innovation, Western governments are also becoming more concerned about this.

In the US, the Biosecure Act enacted through the fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act created new restrictions affecting relationships with designated biotech companies of concern.

So in this case, Wuxi Apptech and Wuxi Biologics became central symbols of this debate because so much Western biotech has historically relied on Chinese contract research and manufacturing infrastructure.

So we now have two forces moving in opposite directions.