The American Biosecurity Initiative

Medicine Is National Security

The ability to discover, develop, and make our own medicine is critical national security infrastructure. That capacity is under pressure from abroad and weakening from our own choices at home. The American Biosecurity Initiative is building the coalition to defend what works and restore what is broken.

See the Threat
// Threat Data //
TRIALSChina ran more clinical trials than the U.S. in 2024, about 7,100 to 6,000. LEADChina overtook the U.S. in annual clinical trial volume earlier this decade. PIPELINENearly half of the new drug candidates entering trials in 2025 originated in China. SPEEDChinese trial networks run early-phase studies up to 40% cheaper and 50% faster than the U.S. RESEARCH BASEThe NIH issued about 24% fewer new research grants in 2025 than its ten-year average. INGREDIENTSForeign manufacturers make roughly 80% of the active ingredients in U.S. medicines. ANTIBIOTICSChina controls an estimated 80 to 90% of global production of key antibiotic ingredients. IBUPROFENChina supplies roughly 95% of U.S. ibuprofen imports. CHOKEPOINTIndia, the top source of U.S. generics, relies on China for up to 80% of its own active ingredients. SHORTAGESU.S. drug shortages hit an all-time high of 323 in early 2024. TRIALSChina ran more clinical trials than the U.S. in 2024, about 7,100 to 6,000. LEADChina overtook the U.S. in annual clinical trial volume earlier this decade. PIPELINENearly half of the new drug candidates entering trials in 2025 originated in China. SPEEDChinese trial networks run early-phase studies up to 40% cheaper and 50% faster than the U.S. RESEARCH BASEThe NIH issued about 24% fewer new research grants in 2025 than its ten-year average. INGREDIENTSForeign manufacturers make roughly 80% of the active ingredients in U.S. medicines. ANTIBIOTICSChina controls an estimated 80 to 90% of global production of key antibiotic ingredients. IBUPROFENChina supplies roughly 95% of U.S. ibuprofen imports. CHOKEPOINTIndia, the top source of U.S. generics, relies on China for up to 80% of its own active ingredients. SHORTAGESU.S. drug shortages hit an all-time high of 323 in early 2024.

/// The Threat ///

Two Fronts Squeezing American Medicine

American biopharmaceutical strength is under pressure from two fronts, determined competitors abroad and years of policy erosion at home. Acting together, they compress the same domestic base. How the country answers will matter as much as the pressure itself. The real danger is reaching for responses that feel like security and do not deliver it. Start with the problem itself.

01

Abroad

The CCP runs a biotech strategy on five-year, ten-year, and decades-long horizons, and it does not separate commercial work from state purpose. Chinese companies operate under laws that can compel them to share what they hold with the government. The PLA serves the CCP. Data, research, and capability built in one place can be repurposed to another, and AI shortens the path from information to advantage. None of this requires assuming bad intent from any one company. It requires being open-eyed about a system built to put those tools to state use. Centralized trial networks already run early-phase studies faster and for far less money than ours, and on current pace China surpasses the United States in total clinical trials before the end of the decade.

02

At Home

Throughout our history, government support laid the foundation for American scientific leadership. Federally funded research. A regulatory system that moved at the speed of science. Universities that drew the world's best minds. Private capital that carried discovery to patients. It produced the cancer treatments, DNA-guided prescribing, faster diagnosis of rare and inherited disease, low-cost sequencing, and the tools that let us read a new virus in weeks. That foundation has been weakening for decades. Federal research is being cut. Visa and immigration restrictions push talent toward competitors. Review timelines are lagging. And price pressure compresses the margins research depends on. No single cut is decisive. Together they compound, and the domestic base competes from a weaker position each year.

What Works, and What Does Not

Some responses feel like security and quietly erode it. Tariffs, mandates, forced decoupling, and broad investment controls cut off supply before any replacement exists, raise costs at home, and surrender ground to competitors. The responses that hold are harder. Unleash the domestic base so it can outcompete anyone. Hold American standing in the markets where pulling back only makes the country less relevant. Build trusted networks of allies so capacity has somewhere to go. Aim the hard tools at the genuine bad actors and leave the rest of the field open to win.

/// Mission ///

American biopharmaceuticals are critical national security infrastructure. The American Biosecurity Initiative makes that case and works to see it reflected in American domestic and foreign policy.

  • 01

    Lead the Global Field

    The way to answer the threat abroad is to compete and lead. America should out-innovate its rivals, compete in global markets, and build the trusted networks of allies and partners that set the standards others follow. Pulling back cedes that ground to competitors with weaker standards and leaves the country less secure.

  • 02

    Unleash Domestic Capacity

    Leadership starts with a strong base at home. Our adversaries are working to take the global lead in biotechnology, and American policy should not be making that easier. No policy should weaken the country's ability to research, develop, or manufacture its own medicine.

When American science withdraws from the field, someone else writes the standard.

/// Intelligence ///

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