Revisiting the 2025 US congress report on biotech competition with China.
I find the topic interesting, biotech/materials/bioprocessing is a use case for AI. It is also very strategic, which means national champions need to emerge, and US and China have big gaps:
--there is no Chinese TMO/Danaher, China labs depend on them
--equally there is no US equivalent of wuxi apptec/biologics, US pharmas rely on them, while Charles River and Catalent are laggards
--Maybe same as with semis, and Intel vs TSMC, the US comes out with a BioAct (chips act 2.0) or starts taking stakes.
Eric Schmidt, big hawk, co-authors the report alongside a few congressmen and doctors, so you can imagine the tone.
-calls Wuxi Apptec "the Huawei of biotech" (no wonder they are the prime target for sanctions)
-Wuxi Apptec name comes up like 5 different sections of the report. Examples in the pics. Only a couple other Chinese companies are mentioned.
-The tone is incredibly depressing for the future of the US China relationship:
---Out of the gate, first paragraph of the 150 page report set the scene: "China first steals, then subsidizes, and finally strangles" with the sole objective of "weakening the US" and "dominate the world". Man, the drama.
---It gets worse from there. At some point accuses China of exploring eugenics. Zero window in 60 pages to explore win wins.
-Dramas aside, the report has a few interesting scifi-esque case studies of biomanufacturing:
---microbes that degrade cement and steel to secretly weaken enemy infrastructures
---memory storage in DNA form instead of silicon chips
---ability for soldiers in the front to synthesize food, medicines, and ammunition locally, to stop reliance on supply chains
---super soldiers that think faster and dont get tired