Biden To Announce New Support, For US Bio-Tech Production

President Joe Biden is launching a new initiative to encourage bio-tech production and research in the US, the latest move by the White House to boost domestic industry. Biden on Monday signed an executive order implementing the initiative and later, in remarks at the John F Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston, will address how bio-tech can help fight cancer. On Wednesday, the Democratic president's administration will host a summit and announce new investments from several federal agencies, according to a White House fact sheet.

The initiative will seek to boost bio-manufacturing in pharmaceuticals but also in other industries such as agriculture, plastics and energy. A senior administration official wouldn't say how much funding will be announced Wednesday. Biomanufacturing processes can program microbes to make specialty chemicals and compounds, the fact sheet said. Biomanufacturing can be used to make alternatives to oil-based chemicals, plastics and textiles.

The executive order follows bipartisan legislation Biden signed last month that provided USD 52 billion to subsidise the production of semiconductors, construction of new chip plants and research and development in the United States. That legislation was intended to reduce the US economy's reliance on semiconductors made overseas, particularly in Taiwan, and to respond to greater efforts by China to develop its own chip industry. Biden touted the benefits of the semiconductor law on Friday, in a stop in Columbus, Ohio, where chip giant Intel has broken ground on a new USD 20 billion factory.

The administration official, who wasn't authorised to speak publicly and insisted on anonymity, said the White House wants to support manufacturing biotech products that are developed in the US, rather than seeing American innovations produced abroad. "We're aiming to expand domestic biomanufacturing capacity so that more of what's invented in America is made in America," the official said. "Other countries, including and especially China, are aggressively investing in this sector, which poses risks to US leadership and competitiveness."

(PTI)