By Flora Brookfield

There has been a marked increase in the amount of money being invested by Chinese investors into U.S. early stage biotechnology companies since 2017, spurred on by direct encouragement from Beijing through its Made in China 2025 industrial policy, which specifically targets biotech as a strategic industry eligible for greater government backing. In the first half of 2018, Chinese venture capital funds and high net worth family offices invested $5.1 billion in US biotech companies, exceeding the $4 billion invested by Chinese investors in all of 2017.