Trump’s Moves Shake Up The U.S. Life Science Industry
Will the U.S. lose its first position in the bio-based industry? The American life science industry, which includes biotechnology companies, medical research and public health institutions, has come under attack from the new administration of Donald Trump. During the first months of his return to the White House, President Trump made moves that reversed the course of his previous policy of support for biotechnology and drastically reduced the budgets of leading scientific and health agencies.
Ending Support for the Biotech Industry
One of the first moves of the Trump administration was to withdraw the support for encouraging the development of biotechnology and the bio-industry brought by Joe Biden in 2022. The National Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Initiative was an initiative of the U.S. government to accelerate biotechnology innovation and expand the bioeconomy in the healthcare, agriculture, and energy sectors.
By repealing it, Trump has reversed the official policy of supporting biotechnological innovation and the domestic bio-industry. This U-turn signaled to the life science industry that it could no longer count on proactive help from the federal government in bridging the gap from lab to commercialization. Analysts point out that the abolition of this provision means a slowdown in initiatives that were supposed to translate biotechnological innovations into economic development.
Budget Cuts for All Actors in the Bioeconomy
In 2025, the Trump administration has also embarked on aggressive budget cuts by key scientific institutions. First, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) came under attack. Just weeks after the inauguration, the suspension of federal scientific funding payments was ordered until the priorities of the agencies were reviewed. The Supreme Court blocked the full implementation of that decision, but the Trump administration soon found other ways to cut spending on science.
Fear in the U.S. Life Science Industry
The abrupt shift in U.S. policy toward the life science sector has sparked concern and outrage across the scientific community and the biotech industry. Several universities and institutes have reported running out of funding almost overnight during projects. In Massachusetts, a world-renowned center of biomedical innovation, researchers talk about the lack of clear instructions without which they cannot plan their current and future research. In practice, there are increasingly loud stories that some of the laboratories have been left so deprived of basic resources that they do not even have the money to buy scientific literature or pens.
More and more laboratories are turning into new, smarter ways of financing and reduced costs. New, modern platforms make it possible to exchange and sell unused laboratory equipment that they no longer need. This way of purchasing used laboratory equipment is the perfect solution for optimizing laboratory costs at a time when state budgets and subsidies are decreasing.
The Call of Europe, China and the Middle East
While the U.S. is facing cuts, other countries are rapidly strengthening their life science ecosystems, underscoring how strategic the industry has become. An example of this is the UAE, which launched a large Life Sciences cluster called HELM (Health, Endurance, Longevity, and Medicine) in its capital Abu Dhabi with the aim of encouraging medical innovation on a global scale. The new cluster, presented during Global Health Week in Abu Dhabi, is conceived as a platform for research, development and production of advanced healthcare solutions from AI-powered diagnostics to the production of gene therapies.
A similar trend is visible in Europe. For example, Finland launched a new incubator called OYSTER at the end of 2024 dedicated to accelerating the development of startups in healthcare and biotechnology. The OYSTER Incubator provides expert mentorship, infrastructure and start-up investments for innovative companies in the areas of digital health, medical technology, diagnostics and the wider health industry. The Finnish government is demonstrating its ambition to keep young innovators in the country and attract new ones, offering them support that may no longer find in traditional centers such as the United States.
At the same time, China is well on its way to dominating the biotech sphere thanks to a combination of strategic investments and new technologies such as artificial intelligence. The U.S. National Biotechnology Commission warns that the U.S. must invest at least $15 billion over the next five years if it wants to keep pace with China in this area of strategic importance.
Expert Opinion
We also asked experts from Wasteless, who closely monitor every new move in the world, for their opinion on the current state of the world life science market. They say: “The ongoing uncertainty in the future of life science in America not only removes funding from the places responsible for life-changing innovation for patients but also makes investors hesitant to allocate their capital in the sector.
This poses great challenges for translational research, making it more difficult to bring new therapies to patients. With less access to capital, there are fewer spinoffs from universities, further slowing progress. Meanwhile, as inflation looms over American companies, the amount of money needed to develop a drug is expected to cross $3 billion in the not-so-distant future.
As a result, there is less funding available at a time when life science products have never been more expensive. This situation compels stakeholders to explore alternative ways to conduct early research, and we offer one solution that can tackle this challenge.”
