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Biotechnology
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In-Person DC Roundtable: National Security and the U.S. Pharma and Biotech IndustriesThe COVID-19 pandemic and chronic U.S. drug shortages highlight the health security and strategic importance of U.S. pharmaceutical and biotechnology capabilities during and between pathogenic crises. Geopolitical competition and interest in industrial policy for biotechnology further underscore the national security role of domestic biopharmaceutical infrastructure. Policymakers confront competing health, economic, and strategic priorities in maximizing innovation in technology, business models, and health-care systems in facilitating safe, accessible, secure, and sustainable products, services, and supply chains. Please join our speakers, Monique K. Mansoura, executive director for global health security and biotechnology at The MITRE Corporation, and Victor Suarez, Colonel (ret.), U.S. Army, senior fellow (visiting) at The Council on Strategic Risks and founder of BluZoneBio, to explore challenges facing the U.S. pharma and biotech industries and approaches to strengthening the national security resilience of those industries in a world marked by health and geopolitical threats.
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Bernard L. Schwartz Annual Lecture on Economic Growth and Foreign Policy With Tony ColesDrawing from his distinguished career in the pharmaceutical industry, Cerevel Therapeutics Chairman and former CEO Tony Coles discusses developments in biotechnology, the implications of health policy on economic security, and leadership lessons learned throughout his career. The Bernard L. Schwartz Annual Lecture on Economic Growth and Foreign Policy series focuses on two areas: the evolution of the relationship between business and government in the making of foreign policy, and ways for government to make better use of business in solving foreign policy problems.
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Negotiating Global Health Security
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Lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic could revolutionize global health security, but the window for change is closing—quickly. In the latest Council Special Report, Yanzhong Huang and Rebecca Katz outline the urgent reforms that could lead to a safer, healthier world.
Experts in this Topic
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Managing the Risks of Biotechnology InnovationBiotechnology advances offer immense public health and consumer potential, but come with serious risks. A recent workshop held by the Council on Foreign Relations brought experts together to discuss new forms of global governance to manage those risks.
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Global Health Security in the DNA AgeRapid advancements in biotechnology could have massive implications for public health and the global economy. Ryan Morhard, director of policy and partnerships at Ginkgo Bioworks, outlines how global health security governance can keep pace.
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Renewing America Series: Public Health as a Public Good—What's at Stake?The COVID-19 pandemic amplified health disparities and renewed conversations about the limitations of current public health systems after decades of disinvestment. Panelists explore the idea of reframing public health as a public good to drive investment, modernization, and encourage better coordination across health systems. With its Renewing America initiative, CFR is evaluating nine critical domestic issues that shape the ability of the United States to navigate a demanding, competitive, and dangerous world.
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Can Biotech Be Harnessed?Richard Haass and Michelle McMurry-Heath, president and CEO of the Biotechnology Innovation Institute, discuss the future of biotechnology and its potential impact on food production, climate change, energy production, and medicine.
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Centennial Speaker Series Session 8: Will Technology Save Us or Threaten Us?Fei-Fei Li discusses artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies that are certain to have enormous implications for this country and the world. This meeting is the eighth session in CFR’s centennial speaker series, The 21st Century World: Big Challenges & Big Ideas, which features some of today’s leading thinkers and tackles issues that will define this century.
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Centennial Speaker Series Session 6: What Are the Potential Benefits and Risks of Biotechnology?Dr. Michelle McMurry-Heath discusses the future of biotechnology and how policymakers can best leverage scientific advances to confront 21st century challenges. This meeting is the sixth session in CFR’s speaker series, The 21st Century World: Big Challenges & Big Ideas, which features some of today’s leading thinkers and tackles issues that will define this century.
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South Africa’s Biovac Strikes Deal to Make COVID-19 VaccineA "fill and finish" agreement between Pfizer and Biovac, a South African company, has its limitations and critics, but is nonetheless a step forward in securing COVID-19 vaccines for the African continent.
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Preventing the Next Pandemic: Leveraging Technology for Early Warning of Spreading Infectious Illness.The rapid rate of infection in the ongoing pandemic is catalyzing technological innovation to prevent the next potential pandemic from ever reaching a global scale. Technology is the essential tool for early testing, detection, and tracking. Through the use of modern data science techniques to develop epidemiological forecast models and personal technology such as smart thermometers and wearables to track trends across regions, preventative measures are more powerful than ever before. Our speaker Inder Singh, founder and CEO of Kinsa Inc., discusses the current and changing landscape of technology and infectious disease prevention.
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Transformative Technology, Transformative Governance: A New Blog Series on the FutureA flood of technological innovation has left global governance floundering. A new blog series explores this inundation and how to strengthen the levees.
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Biotechnology: The Potential and Perils of InnovationExperts discuss the latest developments in synthetic biology and biotechnology, and their implications for U.S. national security over the next decade.
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CRISPR: Transformative and TroublingA new genetic technology has the potential to cure diseases and boost plant, insect, and human lives, but it also poses profound ethical questions.
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Mitigating the Risks of Synthetic BiologyOverview Synthetic biology is a relatively new field that aims to make biology easier to engineer and more amenable to rational design. As the field expands, synthetic biology may become a pervasive industrial technology, replacing chemistry in applications as diverse as mining, environmental remediation, and the manufacture and production of common household goods and foods. However, synthetic biology may also be misused, and the advent of this technology has national security implications. Gigi Kwik Gronvall, senior associate at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Center for Health Security and associate professor of medicine and public health at the University of Pittsburgh, discusses the possibility of biological accidents and the development and use of biological weapons in this new CFR Discussion Paper. She offers recommendations that address both domestic and international security concerns, highlighting ways to improve existing policies and build oversight for the use of synthetic biology. This publication is sponsored by the Center for Preventive Action (CPA) and is made possible by the generous support of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. CPA seeks to help prevent, defuse, or resolve deadly conflicts around the world and to expand the body of knowledge on conflict prevention.