Two bipartisan Michigan lawmakers have joined forces to debut new legislation that, if enacted, could significantly suppress dealmaking between Chinese and American biotech and pharma companies.
Together, Republican John Moolenaar and Democrat Debbie Dingell have proposed the Biotech Investment National Security Act (BINSA). Acting as an amendment to the Comprehensive Outbound Investment National Security (COINS) Act of December 2025, which set out in part to curb China’s burgeoning dominance in the tech field, BINSA would allow US lawmakers to monitor and impose severe restrictions on American investments into foreign technology sectors.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
According to Moolenaar, legislation like BINSA would “protect research, innovation and the medicines Americans depend on”, as US pharma companies increasingly turn to China for their innovative pipeline assets.
In a statement, Moolenaar specifically called out recent, high-profile deals made by pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) as “dangerous” and a potential threat to the future of pharmaceutical production in the US – referring to BMS’s recent mega-deal worth up to $15.2bn with Hengrui, and Pfizer’s $10.5bn cancer deal with Innovent Biologics.
If enacted, US pharma and biotech-centric licensing agreements, as well as equity investments and joint ventures with Chinese entities, will be subject to review by the Department of the Treasury. This includes licensing agreements related to technology and intellectual property.
Moolenaar and Dingell debuted BINSA just over six months after Congress signed the BIOSECURE Act into law. Lawmakers designed this to limit Chinese biotechs and manufacturers from accessing US funding, while curbing collaborations with domestic pharma companies using federal funds.
US seeks to limit China’s rise in healthcare
Moolenaar and Dingell look to pass BINSA as collaborative efforts between Chinese and American biotech and pharma companies continue to surge, with cross-border licensing hitting a value of $136bn in 2025 – a value more than 27 times higher than the $5bn rate seen in 2020.
The strong uptick in deals comes amid the backdrop of a looming patent cliff for the pharma industry, as several high-value drugs face loss of market exclusivity in the next few years. According to a report from GlobalData, parent company of Pharmaceutical Technology, this patent cliff will result in over $230bn in losses for the US market between 2025 and 2030. Analysts predict that oncology will be one of the most highly impacted areas of the sector.
On their quest to restock pipelines and mitigate the impacts of exclusivity loss, American companies have been increasingly turning to Chinese innovators, as many in the country shift their focus away from generic and ‘me too’ drug production to focus on the creation of first- or best-in-class assets.
Experts previously told Pharmaceutical Technology that, in 2026, high-value oncology licensing deals will likely drive China’s continued licensing boom with Western companies in 2026.
