Treasury weighs adding biotech to outbound investment screening

A bipartisan effort in Congress this year seeks to add biotech to the Treasury Department’s outbound investment screening list, allowing Treasury to review whether agreements or investments with foreign companies, entities or governments could pose national security risks.

John Stanford, executive director of Incubate, said last year’s National Defense Authorization Act formally brought biotech into the national security discussion and included steps such as creating biotech offices across the defense ecosystem. He said the defense bill also included a version of the BIOSECURE Act addressing pharmaceutical supply chain onshoring.

Stanford said the COINS Act debate centers on whether Treasury should restrict U.S. entities from licensing, investing in or partnering with Chinese companies in biotech. He said China has become a strong biotech innovator and warned that restricting U.S. capital could allow European, Japanese and other capital to fill the gap.

Read the full story at pharmexec.com.