To outcompete China, unhandcuff America’s biotech innovators

America’s long-held dominance in biotechnology is slowly slipping away. China now conducts more clinical drug trials than the U.S., and its share of global drug-development activity has grown dramatically over the past decade.

This is a problem that goes well beyond the biotech industry. The countries that can discover, develop, manufacture and commercialize the next generation of medical breakthroughs will have an enormous advantage in economic competitiveness, national security and public health.

But America still has opportunities to outcompete China, and regenerative medicine could be one of them. Regenerative treatments involve biotechnologies such as engineered tissues, biomaterials, and gene editing that seek to repair or replace damaged cells, tissues and organs. While China is active in the field, the market for this technology in the U.S. is expected to balloon to $90 billion by 2030.

The U.S. can outpace the rest of the world in this next frontier of healthcare, but only with a policy environment that encourages innovation and enables American companies to compete on equal footing with their global counterparts. That requires a nimble and dynamic regulatory process — one that makes timely decisions and gives innovators the certainty they need to create products that meet patient needs.

The consequences of delayed regulatory decisions are not hypothetical. One Florida biotechnology company has spent years living them.

Based in Pensacola, Regenative Labs develops products for patients........

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