From Scale Advantage to Systemic Breakthrough: Why China’s Bio-Manufacturing Needs a National Competition
The total industry scale has exceeded 1.1 trillion yuan, with the output of bio-fermentation products accounting for more than 70% of the global total—this is the achievement report delivered by China’s biomanufacturing industry.
Over the past two decades, leveraging a comprehensive supply chain system and the demographic dividend of engineers, China has gradually nurtured a cohort of enterprises with global competitiveness: Bloomage Biotech holds over 40% of the global market share in hyaluronic acid raw materials, firmly ranking first worldwide; Cathay Biotech commands approximately 80% of the global market share for long-chain dicarboxylic acids, nearly dominating this niche segment; Huaheng Biotechnology’s global market share for alanine has also reached around 60%...
This is a remarkable path of development. However, as the spotlight shifts from “output” to “quality,” and from “manufacturing” to “innovation,” a more profound question emerges: Can we hold this high ground?
Scale does not equate to safety, nor does manufacturing prowess guarantee bargaining power. If the cost advantage gradually dissipates and other regions abroad establish efficient supply chains, the current comfort zone of “trading scale for profits” may not necessarily become tomorrow’s moat.
Currently, our foundation in underlying tools and methodologies remains weak; core patents for gene editing and key technologies for high-end bioreactors are still partly held by others.
From a “Major Player in Scale” to a “Powerhouse in Technology”: China’s Biomanufacturing Industry Stands at a Critical Turning Point
Behind China’s advantages in fermentation capacity and end-product output in biomanufacturing, there remain two gaps that cannot be overlooked.
The first gap lies in the level of autonomy in underlying technologies.
At the launch event of the 2026 Bio-Manufacturing Competition, Academician Yuan Yingjin of the Chinese Academy of Sciences presented a “Technology Self-Reliance” map in his keynote address, visually revealing a reality: although China leads the world in fermentation scale, many links in the full chain from design to manufacturing remain constrained by external dependencies.
Specifically, according to relevant analyses, in the field of gene editing, core tools have long relied on foreign CRISPR-related patents, and China still largely depends on foreign prime editing systems for precise gene editing. In terms of high-end instruments and equipment, imported Raman spectrometers are prohibitively expensive, while domestically produced equipment remains relatively backward technologically. Imported 24-well high-throughput reactor systems are priced at the tens of millions of yuan level, and China is still in its infancy in this area.
This situation is strikingly similar to that of EDA software in the chip sector and high-end CNC systems for industrial mother machines. Some analysts believe the root cause may lie in the market’s long-standing preference for exchanging scale for profits and speed for market share, coupled with a lack of patience for basic research whose short-term returns are not immediately apparent.
The second gap is the commercialization rate of laboratory achievements.
According to relevant statistics, approximately 2,000 biomanufacturing startups have emerged in China over the past five years, with cumulative financing reaching RMB 200 billion, underscoring the strong enthusiasm of capital. However, the Blue Book on the Transformation of Scientific and Technological Achievements in China’s Biotechnology Industry (2024) indicates that the conversion rate of scientific and technological achievements in China’s biopharmaceutical sector is only around 5%, meaning that out of every 100 laboratory findings, only five make it to industrialization.
These two gaps are not isolated: the lack of foundational tools has increased technical risks in the pilot-scale testing phase, while inefficient translation channels have caused many teams with proprietary technologies to fail on the eve of mass production. Together, they constitute two critical thresholds that China’s biomanufacturing sector must overcome in its transition from a “large-scale producer” to a “technological powerhouse.”
In the field of biomanufacturing, there is a frequently cited concept—the “Valley of Death.”
Academician Yuan Yingjin pointed out that industrial development needs to make breakthroughs in the three key stages of “proof of concept, pilot-scale testing, and industrialization,” a transformation process that the industry vividly refers to as the “Valley of Death.”
This is a highly prevalent yet extremely thorny technical dilemma in the field of biomanufacturing: high-efficiency strains that perform exceptionally well in the laboratory often experience metabolic disorders and a sharp decline in expression levels once scaled up to industrial fermenters, causing numerous achievements to fail at the “last mile” from “sample” to “product.”
The complexity of this issue lies in the fact that it is not merely a technical problem, but a systemic one.
From the perspective of key stakeholders, most startups have only three to five R&D personnel; although they possess high-quality microbial strains and proprietary processes, they face the challenge of requiring tens of millions of yuan in investment to build pilot-scale production platforms. Meanwhile, some universities prioritize academic publications over technology commercialization, with evaluation systems that lack incentives for industrial application.
From the perspective of resource allocation, a survey released by VCBeat points out that domestic pilot-scale platforms generally face three core bottlenecks: “insufficient scale, inadequate services, and difficulties in intellectual property protection.” The result is the coexistence of underutilized equipment and redundant construction, as well as data silos and experiential barriers.
From the perspective of capital logic, most investment institutions favor tangible hard assets and may adopt a wait-and-see approach toward the pilot-scale testing phase, which is characterized by long cycles and high risks.
Therefore, the convergence of multiple factors has created a typical “chokepoint” cycle. Breaking this deadlock requires coordinated efforts from policy makers, platforms, and capital.
In the face of this stalemate, policy responses are shifting from “point-specific support” to “systemic framework building.”
From the perspective of top-level design, the signal is clear and resolute.
In 2025, the Government Work Report explicitly identified biomanufacturing as a future industry for the first time; one year later, the 2026 Government Work Report reaffirmed the importance of cultivating future industries such as biomanufacturing. The “Proposal of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development” also clearly called for forward-looking deployment in biomanufacturing to establish it as a new driver of economic growth.
At the launch event of the 2026 Biomanufacturing Competition, Xiao Duyu, Deputy Director-General (Level II) of the Department of Consumer Goods Industry under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, presented a set of policy achievements: in terms of innovation breakthroughs, 16 typical application cases of artificial intelligence in the field of biomanufacturing, 35 landmark biomanufacturing products, and 28 high-performance bioreactors shortlisted for the “open competition” mechanism have been selected and announced.
“China’s bio-manufacturing sector is currently facing a major strategic window of opportunity, with new technologies, achievements, and application scenarios continually emerging. It is therefore an opportune time to host a national-level bio-manufacturing competition,” stated Xiao Duyu.
Meanwhile, more than 20 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities), including Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Henan, Shandong, and Xinjiang, have introduced relevant policies to accelerate the layout of the new track in the biomanufacturing industry.
From an infrastructure perspective, the pilot-scale testing phase is becoming a key focus of policy efforts. In 2025, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the National Development and Reform Commission jointly launched initiatives to cultivate platforms for building pilot-scale testing capabilities in biomanufacturing, setting a goal to “strive to establish more than 20 such platforms by 2027, serve over 200 enterprises, and incubate more than 400 products.”
The first batch of 43 publicly listed entities has been selected, covering research institutions such as the Wenzhou Institute of University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Huazhong Agricultural University, and the Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, as well as leading enterprises including Transfar Group and Bloomage Biotech.
Policies are in place, and platforms are established, yet a critical link remains missing: How can these fragmented resources be precisely directed to the startups and enterprises that need them most? How can promising innovations from laboratories encounter the right capital, the right platforms, and the right application scenarios at the right time?
On May 15, 2026, the “2026 Bio-Manufacturing Competition,” launched in Tianjin, was designed as a systematic response to the aforementioned industry pain points.
Guided by the Department of Consumer Goods Industry under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), and co-hosted by the MIIT Small and Medium Enterprises Development Promotion Center together with the industry and information technology authorities and local governments of Beijing, Tianjin, and Shanghai, this national-level competition is themed “Innovation-Driven, Smart Manufacturing Vitality.”
This is not a simple “excellence evaluation” activity, but an ecosystem builder that integrates technology incubation, capital matchmaking, and industrial implementation. Unlike the traditional three-stage model of competitions—“pre-competition call for entries, in-competition evaluation, and post-competition dispersal”—this edition emphasizes “precise pre-competition solicitation, resource matchmaking during the competition, and continuous empowerment after the competition.” From the moment of registration, participating projects simultaneously engage in four parallel tracks: technology validation, capital matchmaking, policy adaptation, and scenario-based implementation.
The following six key features constitute the core highlights of this competition.
1. Industry Poses the Questions, Innovation Provides the Answers: Ending “Closed-Door” Technology R&D
Many biomanufacturing companies face this dilemma: “My technology is advanced, but will the market pay for it?”
In response, the competition has innovatively introduced a mechanism of “industry-defined challenges, innovation-driven solutions.” Chain-leading enterprises such as China Resources Group, Cathay Biotech, and Bloomage Biotech will distill real-world technical challenges from their production frontlines, allowing participating teams to select these topics for targeted development.
Each track of the competition adopts a hybrid approach combining open calls for entries with assigned challenges. Participating teams may register independently or opt to address real-world technical challenges posted by leading enterprises, thereby enhancing the precision of industry alignment.
The purpose of this design is to “make innovation more grounded and effective.”
2. Two Major Tracks, Eight Key Directions: Precisely Targeting High-Value Industrial Blue Oceans
The competition features two tracks—Frontier Technology and Application Innovation—covering eight key focus areas.
Among them, the frontier technology track focuses on innovations in underlying technologies, tools, and platforms, specifically including:
Ø Novel gene editing and cell factory construction;
Ø Enzyme Engineering Technology;
Ø AI-driven biological system design and digital bioprocessing platform technologies;
Ø Green Bio-manufacturing Technology.
Among these, the field of green bio-manufacturing technology places particular emphasis on energy consumption optimization, the development of biodegradable materials, and carbon capture and carbon neutrality processes, holding significant strategic value under the “Dual Carbon” goals.
The Application Innovation Track focuses on the implementation of industrial scenarios or iterative innovation of specific products, covering:
Ø Functional raw materials for food and daily chemical products;
Ø Bio-based Materials and Green Agriculture;
Ø Localization of key equipment and reagents for biomanufacturing;
Ø Life and Health (Global Health).
Among these, the market for functional ingredients in food and daily chemical products is vast with clear demand, while the localization of key equipment and reagents for biomanufacturing aligns with national strategy and offers definite policy dividends.
3. “Government, Industry, Academia, Research, Finance, Service, and Application” in a Seven-in-One Model: Standing at the Center of the Resource Network from Day One of the Competition
Breaking away from the traditional model of “government setting the stage and enterprises performing,” this edition of the competition has established a multi-party collaborative resource network. According to the introduction during the release of the competition plan, it has currently gathered more than 50 academic institutions, over 60 industry entities, more than 80 financial institutions, and over 80 media organizations.
Academic support is provided by leading institutions, including Tsinghua University, Peking University, Tianjin University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and the Institute of Microbiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Industry support includes leading enterprises such as COFCO Group, China Resources Group, Bloomage Biotech, and Cathay Biotech.
Financial support includes the National SME Development Fund, Sequoia Capital, IDG Capital, and others.
Media support includes People's Daily, Xinhua News Agency, China Media Group, and others.
These supporting entities are deeply involved in review, question design, and resource matching, fostering an innovation ecosystem that truly enables “bio-synthesis-like” synergy. From the moment of registration, participating projects simultaneously navigate four parallel tracks: technical validation, capital matchmaking, policy alignment, and scenario implementation.
4. Focusing on “Early-Stage, Small-Scale, Long-Term, and Hard-Tech Investments”: A Capital Logic Tailored for Biomanufacturing Enterprises
Most biomanufacturing enterprises in China are in their early stages of development, have not yet established stable revenue and profit streams, and face prolonged product commercialization pathways, making it difficult for traditional financing channels to adequately meet their capital requirements.
The competition precisely addressed this pain point by explicitly proposing the establishment of an investment framework focused on “early-stage, small-scale, long-term, and hard-tech” investments.
The competition has partnered with over 80 financial institutions to bridge the information gap between investors and projects through industry-finance matchmaking activities. The lineup of financial supporters includes leading firms such as the National Fund for Small and Medium Enterprise Development, SDIC Innovation, Sequoia Capital, IDG Capital, and Hillhouse Investment.
This competition will leverage a variety of financial instruments, including government-guided funds, bank technology loans, and innovation insurance risk-sharing mechanisms, to provide targeted support for early-stage, high-tech biomanufacturing enterprises.
5. Open up and share pilot-scale resources to bridge the "valley of death" from "samples" to "products"
The pilot-scale production phase is an inevitable step for biomanufacturing to transition from the laboratory to industrialization, a stage vividly referred to by the industry as the "Valley of Death."
High-efficiency strains that perform exceptionally well in the laboratory often encounter issues such as metabolic disorders and a sharp decline in expression levels once scaled up to industrial fermenters. Consequently, numerous achievements fail at the “last mile” from “sample” to “product.” According to the Blue Book on the Transformation of Scientific and Technological Achievements in China’s Biotechnology Industry 2024, the conversion rate of scientific and technological achievements in China’s biopharmaceutical sector is only around 5%, with the lack of pilot-scale testing capability being one of the core bottlenecks.
In response, this competition has designated “open sharing of pilot-scale resources” as one of its core enabling measures, explicitly covering the entire chain from “proof of concept to laboratory-scale trials to pilot-scale trials,” and providing key support such as process scale-up and engineering validation for high-quality projects.
It is reported that China is currently establishing more than 40 pilot-scale capability-building platforms for biomanufacturing. This means that participating companies will have the opportunity to access pilot facilities—previously requiring tens of millions in investment—at a minimal cost, thereby bridging the “valley of death” between laboratory research and industrialization.
6. Empowering the Full Lifecycle: Competition Completion Is Not the End, but the Starting Point for Industrialization
Breaking away from the traditional tripartite model of “pre-competition call for entries, in-competition evaluation, and post-competition dispersal,” this edition of the competition emphasizes “precise pre-competition solicitation, resource matchmaking during the competition, and sustained empowerment after the competition.”
The core benefits of the award-winning projects cover six dimensions:
Ø Prioritize the open sharing of pilot-scale resources for full-chain achievement transformation;
Ø Empowerment through diversified investment and financing, with a focus on early-stage, small-scale, long-term, and hard-tech investments;
Ø Enterprise cultivation and empowerment, providing specialized training in technical management, intellectual property layout, and green manufacturing certification;
Ø Comprehensive marketing promotion, coordinating publicity through central and industry media, with priority inclusion in the list of typical industry application scenarios;
Ø Support for global strategic layout, alignment with international procurement needs, and organization of participation in global health and sustainable development forums and exhibitions;
Ø Leverage policy support, preferential site rental rates, and special assistance for talent acquisition provided by various localities.
Furthermore, the competition achieved cross-regional collaboration in its spatial dimension: the Frontier Technology Track of the semi-finals was held in Changping District, Beijing; the Application Innovation Track took place in Fengxian District, Shanghai; and the finals and award ceremony are scheduled for late October in Wuqing District, Tianjin. This “Beijing R&D – Shanghai Commercialization – Tianjin Manufacturing” geographic model of the competition aligns with the regional division of labor within China’s biomanufacturing industry.
China’s biomanufacturing industry is transitioning from a “major player in scale” to a “global leader in technology,” requiring a cohort of enterprises bold enough to step out of their comfort zones.
Registration for the 2026 Bio-Manufacturing Competition opened on May 15 and will close on July 15. No participation fees will be charged to competing teams.
For biomanufacturing companies eager to achieve technological validation, secure capital support, and realize industrial implementation, this may be a “breakthrough” opportunity not to be missed.
For China’s biomanufacturing sector, the value of this competition lies not only in selecting projects but also in exploring an industrialization pathway that spans from technology validation and pilot-scale scale-up to capital support and real-world application.
