Recent US moves add hurdles to US investments in China biotech

US lawmakers are moving to add the biotechnology sector to the list of industries where investments in China will be scrutinized by US regulators, which amounts to adding new hurdles to US investments in China’s biotech sector.

Recent legislative and regulatory actions intensifying these hurdles include:

The Foreign Investment Guardrails to Help Thwart (FIGHT) China Act, now part of the FY2026 NDAA, authorizes the Treasury Department to restrict or require notification for US investments in sensitive Chinese technologies, including areas that could touch biotech with national security implications.
The Biosecure Act (2025), also enacted under the FY2026 NDAA, blocks certain Chinese biotech companies from federal contracts, grants, and loans, increasing geopolitical and regulatory risk around deals with listed firms.
The Comprehensive Outbound Investment National Security Act (COINS Act) framework, which already covers AI, semiconductors, and quantum, gives Treasury discretion to expand “covered sectors” to biotechnology; lawmakers are actively urging this expansion.
A new bipartisan bill, the Biotech Investment National Security Act of 2026 (BINSA), has been introduced to explicitly add biotechnology (including pharmaceutical and biological product development) as a covered sector under COINS and to bring licensing deals and joint ventures into the outbound investment‑review perimeter.

Together, these measures increase due‑diligence burdens, create potential deal prohibitions, and steer US capital and licensing away from Chinese biotech, effectively raising significant hurdles for US investments in that sector in 2026.