US Launches National Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Initiative

On September 12, 2022, the United States launched the National Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Initiative which will harness the investments, program and partnerships to advance research and development in bioengineering and biomanufacturing, and expand and strengthen the country's biomanufacturing capacity and supply chains. The initiative was developed to reinforce biosecurity innovations, and expand workforce training and education programs in the US.

The key elements of the initiative include:

• Strengthening supply chains and lowering market prices through bio-based production of active pharmaceutical ingredients, biomanufacturing facilities within the country, and biomining of rare earth elements
• Expand domestic biomanufacturing capacity that depend on local feedstocks to create significant impact in US communities
• Facilitate more sharing and data access to advance the development of biotechnology and the bioeconomy
• Expand training and education in community colleges, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and other minority-serving institutions
• Improve food security and enhance agricultural innovation which include new technologies that can address diseases, seed and fertilizer enhancement, and food security
• Support healthcare by the creation of personalized medicines, less invasive tools for disease detection, efficient vaccine and therapeutic manufacturing, and more effective and safer therapies
• Reduce climate change impact by replacing foreign petrochemicals with locally produced bio-based chemicals, cut greenhouse gas emissions by using biofuels, and develop soil microbes and crops that remove more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

The initiative allows the US to reinvent the country's supply chains and shift away from using chemicals that rely on oil to move towards a cleaner, safer and more reliable alternatives that can be locally manufactured.

Read the Initiative and the press briefing released by the White House to learn more.