A draft executive order obtained by The New York Times purports to clamp down on the pharmaceutical industry’s ability to buy new molecules from biotechs based in China, along with a number of other proposed reforms.
The pharmaceutical industry’s recent source of novel molecules may be coming under threat. The White House is reportedly preparing an executive order that would place restrictions on drugs brought to the U.S. from China, including experimental treatments invented at Chinese biotechs.
The policy is part of a draft executive order obtained by The New York Times, which first reported the news. The policies seem broadly concerned with tamping down on Chinese biopharma, which, according to the newspaper, is “fueling fears” that China could soon supplant U.S.-based centers of the pharma industry like Boston and San Francisco.
The order reportedly contains a series of policy proposals that could affect the pharmaceutical industry. One would heavily scrutinize licensing deals between American and Chinese companies, which have been increasingly common in the past few years as U.S. firms look for new sources of novel molecules.
These deals have not historically been subject to regulation but under the executive order would be investigated by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, an inter-agency committee that reviews foreign investments in the U.S.
Another proposed policy is heightening the FDA’s review of clinical data generated in China and adding regulatory fees to applications that use data generated in China. The FDA already requires late-stage clinical data to be generated from U.S. patients.
Behind the executive order is a crosscurrent of opposing interests, according to NYT. Some groups, like tech billionaires Peter Thiel, Sergey Brin and the Koch family, support the idea of cracking down on Chinese influence on U.S. pharmaceuticals because they hold investments in American startups that might struggle in the American pharma industry’s headwinds.
Opposing the order are the largest pharmaceutical companies on the planet, including Pfizer and AstraZeneca, which have been scooping up molecules developed by Chinese biotechs. The pharmaceutical industry spent $48 billion in China in the first half of 2025 alone, more than the entirety of 2024. Meanwhile, concerns about America’s biotech sector ceding leadership to China have been raised in Congress and by the industry.
Another impetus behind the order, according to NYT, is reshoring the U.S. production of medicines commonly manufactured in China, including drugs such as antibiotics and over-the-counter painkillers like Tylenol. Once U.S. manufacturing of those drugs increases, the draft order says, the government should give those drugs purchasing preference.
