New Priorities Announced for Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing

In September 2022, President Biden signed an Executive Order on Advancing Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Innovation for a Sustainable, Safe, and Secure American Bioeconomy, which intended to support American innovation and supply chain needs. On March 22, 2023, the President announced new priorities that, along with this Executive Order, continue to support the Administration’s goals. Highlights of the announcement include:

• The Administration released a report titled “Bold Goals for US Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing,” which provides goals to further climate change solutions, food and agriculture innovation, supply chain resilience, human health, and gene and genome sequencing and similar research. Each area of focus is intended to support job creation, the improvement of supply chains, the reduction of costs, and work toward achieving climate goals. The White House Office of Science and Technology will work to develop an implementation plan focused on the research and development requirements outlined. The report is available at: https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Bold-Goals-for-U.S.-Biotechnology-and-Biomanufacturing-Harnessing-Research-and-Development-To-Further-Societal-Goals-FINAL.pdf.
• The Department of Defense released a memorandum detailing its biomanufacturing strategy and its projected use of $1.2 billion it is investing in the initiative. The memo prioritizes three areas: determining which customers will benefit from early-stage innovation, using innovation to advance biomanufacturing capabilities, and mapping and tracking metrics to support the biomanufacturing ecosystem. The memo is available at: https://www.cto.mil/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/2023-Biomanufacturing-Strategy.pdf.
• As required by the Executive Order, the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis has released a report discussing whether measuring the economic contributions of the bioeconomy is feasible. The report concludes that a broad assessment appears feasible and consistent with efforts made by the European Union and other international organizations, but that an assessment focused on specific visions for the bioeconomy is likely not feasible at this time. The report is available at: https://www.bea.gov/system/files/papers/bea-bioeconomy-report.pdf.

The announcement also indicates that other products of the Executive Order, including a training plan, a report on data requirements, a strategy to increase biomanufacturing capacity, improvements to regulations, and a plan to improve biosafety and biosecurity are still in progress.

An announcement fact sheet is available here.

For more information, contact a member of HBK Manufacturing Solutions at 330-758-8613 or manfuacturing@hbkcpa.com.