How to stop the shift of drug discovery from the U.S. to China

https://www.statnews.com/2025/05/06/how-to-stop-the-shift-of-drug-discovery-from-the-u-s-to-china/


“Usually, only a few months elapse between the moment a U.S. research team publishes a patent identifying a new biological target and when a biotechnology firm in China creates the corresponding drug that capitalizes on these findings. Because Chinese firms can synthesize new molecules at a fraction of the cost incurred by U.S. biotechnology companies — owing to a large and skilled but much cheaper workforce — they find the most intriguing biological targets pursued by Western researchers, rapidly churning out potent yet less expensive copycat molecules that they then market to Western companies.”


ETA this is an interesting, well written article by Scott Gottlieb, former FDA commissioner.