Triggered in part by the COVID-19 pandemic, which demonstrated industry’s roles in developing and producing diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines, President Joe Biden signed Executive Order 14081 in September 2022.

The order is a whole-of-government approach to advancing biotech and biomanufacturing, with the intention to advance science, reduce commercialization hurdles, bring products to market faster, reduce biological risks, and safeguard against threats to economic competitiveness and national security.

Speaking at the plenary session at Biotech Week Boston 2024, Sarah Glaven, principal assistant director, Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing at White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) discussed recent achievements in the sector triggered by the Order.

These included an award initiative led by the Department of Defense supporting scale-up of technology programs at 25 biotech firms with $100 million dedicated to build these out over the next year, and the formation of the National Bioeconomy Board earlier this year intended to tackle logistical hurdles, high costs, and supply chain dependencies, particularly with China.

Glaven also highlighted a host of other investments in the pipeline set to bridge the gap between R&D and commercial production, and continued collaboration between government institutes, academia, and industry.

“We want to make sure that the federal government is part of bolstering the favorable business environment and that we're flexing our procurement muscles in terms of being a partner, a purchasing partner, in the bioeconomy, and also making sure that we are considering the full implications of our regulatory environment.”

However, taxpayer-funded initiatives are liable to political changes, and with a knife-edge election in the US set for November 5, BioProcess Insider asked Glaven during a breakout fireside whether the Executive Order was in danger.

“It’s a question that I get asked often so I want to give a tiny bit of history that I think will help reassure folks that this initiative isn't going away,” Glaven said, referring to whether Kamala Harris or Donald Trump becomes the leader of the free world come January.

“The White House really started paying more attention to biotech and biomanufacturing in earnest during the [Barack] Obama administration, where it formally released a national blueprint for the bioeconomy. That catalyzed the conversation, and I think it lived more heavily in the basic research, R&D space, and wasn't necessarily being talked about in terms in the way we're talking about it now, which is part of an industrial strategy.”

Those Obama-led discussions continued into the next administration with Donald Trump “continuing the momentum around the bioeconomy” by holding a bioeconomy-focused summit at the White House in 2019.

“There were a lot of really smart folks across the federal government that were engaged at that time in mapping out what an executive order would look like. And then, of course, President Biden wanted to make the bioeconomy a key feature of his industrial strategy, alongside things like semiconductors and clean energy transition,” she said.

“This issue, the issue of the bioeconomy, the issue of biotechnology and biomanufacturing, has been bipartisan for a very long time. I don't see that changing as we move into an uncertain time.”