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By Mark Warner, CEO, Liberation Labs On April 10, 2025 in Washington, the NSCEB released its final report to Congress and hosted a day-long convening of leaders from industry, government, and academia. I was there, and the mood was a mix of excitement and realism: bold ideas\u2014like $15B in proposed funding\u2014were welcomed, but tempered by the challenges we\u2019ve seen before.<\/p>\n The report outlines six priority areas: setting national strategy, scaling innovation, defense integration, staying ahead of global competitors, and workforce development. These are the right focus areas. But as Caitlin Frazer, Executive Director of NSCEB, put it plainly: \u201cWe have time to act, but no time to wait.\u201d<\/em> According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, \u201cChina now outspends the United States in biotech research and development (R&D) and leads the world in areas like synthetic biology…..China has dramatically increased its biotech investments, with biopharma R&D growing 400-fold<\/a> and the market value of biotech firms surging 100-fold<\/a> between 2016 to 2021, now reaching a collective value of $300 billion.\u201d<\/p>\n As China accelerates its biotech investments with strategic intent, the U.S. risks ceding leadership not because of lack of innovation, but because of lack of action.<\/p>\n That\u2019s a problem.<\/p>\n We need to be honest about what we mean when we say \u201cmanufacturing.\u201d In any industrial sector, that means:<\/p>\n Until policy, strategy, and investment align around that definition, we\u2019ll continue to fall short\u2014while patting ourselves on the back for marginal progress and risk giving the false impression that the issue is already solved.<\/p>\n Multiple participants raised the lack of U.S. biomanufacturing capacity. Edward Shenderovich, CEO of Synonym, said it best: \u201cThe state of U.S. biomanufacturing is bleak.\u201d<\/em> That\u2019s the gap Liberation Labs is working to fill with our Richmond facility. But this is just one project. A robust bioeconomy needs many more\u2014fast\u2014and the resources, policies, and urgency to support them.<\/p>\n
\nSpecial to the Digest<\/em><\/p>\n
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\nThe gap between ambition and execution is real\u2014and dangerous.<\/p>\nManufacturing\u2014or just talking about it?<\/h4>\n
In addition to the gap between ambition and action, one of the other striking gaps in the report is that between the stressed importance of commercial biomanufacturing and a clear, scalable path for making it happen in the U.S. The word \u201cmanufacturing\u201d appears often, but is frequently clarified to mean pilot or pre-commercial scale-up\u2014not actual, industrial <\/em>production.<\/h4>\n
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\n2. A business producing and selling real products in commercial volumes<\/em> (think: TRL 7 and up)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nThe first step is admitting the problem<\/h4>\n
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\nHe\u2019s right. The U.S. still lacks even a single multi-use, industrial-scale contract fermentation facility\u2014the kind required to actually produce what US biotechnology companies invent.<\/p>\nLead, follow, or get out of the way<\/h4>\n