Ex-VA Secretary: Use VA to counter China's biotech push
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- China has made biotechnology a strategic priority, investing aggressively in AI, synthetic biology, advanced biomanufacturing, gene therapies, and precision medicine, and now conducts more early-stage clinical trials than the United States, according to the source.
- In 2025, Chinese companies captured nearly half of global pharmaceutical licensing activity by dollar amount, a figure the source cites as evidence Beijing is pulling ahead in key measures of the race.
- The bipartisan National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology has warned the US risks losing its biotech advantage entirely if it fails to act, per the opinion piece.
- The Department of Veterans Affairs operates the nation's largest integrated health care system with more than 9 million enrolled veterans, decades of research expertise, and what the source describes as one of the most robust longitudinal electronic health record databases.
- HHS recently launched Operation Trialblazer, bringing together the FDA, NIH, the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, the National Cancer Institute, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, ARPA-H, and the HHS Office of Inspector General to modernize and accelerate clinical research.
- The FDA has announced policies intended to reduce the time from drug discovery to first-in-human studies and clarified that a single high-quality late-stage study supported by confirmatory evidence may provide sufficient evidence of effectiveness, the source notes.
- Shulkin proposes linking HHS, the VA, and the Department of Defense into a coordinated clinical research strategy, arguing a modernized VA research enterprise could function like DARPA for clinical research and accelerate the next generation of medical breakthroughs.
- The source frames biotechnology as the defining industry competition of the 21st century, comparing the current moment to the Sputnik era and arguing victory will belong to whichever nation adapts fastest rather than spends most.
Why it matters: China's documented lead in early-stage clinical trial volume and its capture of nearly half of 2025 pharmaceutical licensing dollars creates concrete competitive pressure on US biotech. By mobilizing the VA's 9 million enrolled veterans and integrated health records as a clinical trial platform alongside HHS's Operation Trialblazer and the DOD research enterprise, the US could compress drug development timelines — the variable the source identifies as decisive over raw spending.
