Joe Biden order to bolster US biotech industry

President Joe Biden will sign an executive order Monday seeking to bolster the trailblazing US biotech sector's efforts to take on growing commercial rivals in China, officials said.

The order will bring federal support for "areas that will define US biotechnology leadership and our economic competitiveness in the coming decades," a senior Biden administration official told reporters.

The official said that while US biotech research leads the world, the industrial applications are increasingly in the hands of other countries.

"Unless we translate biotechnology innovation into economic and societal benefits for all Americans, other countries, including and especially China, are aggressively investing in this sector," posing a "risk," the official said.

Biden will discuss the executive order during a Monday speech in Boston on administration plans to ramp up the US scientific and health care-based fight against cancer.

The official said the global economy is set to be revolutionized by biotechnology.

He cited studies suggesting that "before the end of the decade, engineering biology holds the potential to be used in manufacturing industry that accounts for more than one third of...