Think Tank

Building a new growth engine for biomanufacturing

2025-11-11   

The Proposal of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Formulating the 15th Five Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development, which was deliberated and passed at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, clearly stated that we should plan ahead and layout future industries, and promote quantum technology, biomanufacturing, hydrogen energy, and nuclear fusion energy to become new economic growth points. This important strategic deployment elevates biomanufacturing to the core position of national industrial development, endowing it with the historical mission of driving economic transformation and cultivating new quality productivity. Biological manufacturing is the key track to win the future. In the future, we can no longer be satisfied with following and imitating individual products. We must base ourselves on the national conditions, leverage institutional and market advantages, and continue to make efforts in core technology breakthroughs, industrial ecological cultivation, and market environment creation from the perspective of the entire industry chain. Only then can we seize the opportunity in this magnificent industrial transformation and build biological manufacturing into another important engine driving high-quality development of the Chinese economy. Biological manufacturing is an advanced production method that utilizes living organisms (such as microorganisms, cells, enzymes, etc.) or their components to produce substances and provide services through industrial means. It is penetrating into key fields such as medicine, chemical industry, materials, energy, agriculture, and environmental protection with unprecedented depth and breadth, relying on disruptive technological characteristics and green and low-carbon attributes. It is the core lever to connect the innovation chain and industrial chain, promote industrial intelligence, greening, and integrated development, and has extremely important strategic significance for ensuring national food security, energy security, industrial chain supply chain security, and achieving green and low-carbon development. China's biomanufacturing industry has shown significant characteristics of integrated innovation, green sustainability, and empowerment upgrading. By breaking the boundaries of traditional industries and achieving deep cross integration of biotechnology and multiple fields, green production can be achieved using renewable biomass as raw material under mild reaction conditions, significantly improving the efficiency and added value of traditional industries. These characteristics have a significant catalytic effect on the high-quality development of the industry. Taking the pharmaceutical field as an example, genetic engineering technology has greatly increased the production of recombinant human insulin. From a global perspective, developed countries have already elevated biomanufacturing to a national strategic level. The United States has cultivated a group of innovative enterprises with platform based technologies, leveraging its leading advantages in cutting-edge basic research fields such as synthetic biology and gene editing. The EU places greater emphasis on the green and circular nature of biomanufacturing, making the bioeconomy the core pillar of the European Green Deal, and strongly supporting the research and development of biofuels and biobased products based on non food biomass. In contrast, China's biomanufacturing industry presents distinct characteristics of "national strategic guidance, large-scale market application, and full chain coordinated promotion". China has the most complete industrial system and complete industrial chain in the world, providing unique conditions for the engineering amplification and market-oriented application of biomanufacturing technology. Unlike Europe and America, which focus on cutting-edge and high value-added sub sectors, China's development path places more emphasis on combining with major national needs, demonstrating stronger systematic and scale effects in areas such as green substitution of bulk chemicals and food security. We must also be aware that there is still a gap between China and the international leading level in terms of underlying core technology, original creation capability construction, and competitiveness of high value-added products. Especially in the fields of high-end industrial enzyme preparations, core biological design software, and key equipment manufacturing, there are still shortcomings. To promote the high-quality development of the biomanufacturing industry, more systematic and powerful measures need to be taken. Strengthen top-level design and strategic guidance. A clearer national plan for the development of biomanufacturing in the medium and long term should be formulated, specifying the priority technological directions and key product catalogs for development. Coordinate various technological resources and strengthen long-term stable support for underlying technologies and common platform technologies such as synthetic biology, enzyme engineering, and biosensing. Establish regulations, standards, and admission systems that are adapted to the characteristics of biomanufactured products, and shorten the launch cycle of innovative products. Build a full chain collaborative innovation ecosystem. Encourage the formation of innovative consortia that deeply integrate industry, academia, research, and funding. Support leading enterprises to take the lead, collaborate with universities and research institutes to carry out collaborative research and development around specific industrial chains, and break through the thrilling leap from laboratory "samples" to industrialized "products". Especially, it is necessary to strengthen the construction of pilot scale and clinical/application verification platforms, which are key links in technological maturity. Expand diversified investment and market driven mechanisms. While increasing government R&D investment, actively guide social capital, especially long-term capital, to invest in the field of biomanufacturing. Explore the establishment of a national investment fund for the biomanufacturing industry. Improve green procurement policies and prioritize the procurement of green products such as bio based and biodegradable materials. Implement a carbon footprint accounting and labeling system to reflect the green value of biomanufactured products through market mechanisms. Consolidate the foundation of talent and infrastructure. Strengthen interdisciplinary talent cultivation and encourage universities to establish interdisciplinary disciplines related to biomanufacturing. Vigorously introduce top international talents and teams. We will lay out and construct a batch of national major scientific and technological infrastructure, data resource libraries, and strain libraries for biomanufacturing, providing strong public support for industrial innovation. Zhang Linshan, Director and Researcher of the Macro Economic Research Institute of the National Development and Reform Commission

Edit:Luoyu Responsible editor:Jiajia

Source:ECONOMIC DAILY

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