US lawmakers are pressing the Pentagon to speed up the mass production and deployment of synthetic blood critical for traumatic injuries on the battlefield as Congress seeks to shore up the US biotechnology field to parry China’s rapid developments.
Congress and the Pentagon are investing in the emerging biotechnology field as a critical driver of national security. The National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology has called on the US government to spend at least $15 billion over the next five years to unlock private capital and investment in the sector to blunt China’s rapid surge in the field.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is funding the development of deployable, shelf-stable whole blood substitute to treat hemorrhages. DARPA has backed research into synthetic products designed to replicate key functions of whole blood, including oxygen delivery, hemostatic support, and restoration of circulating volume.
DARPA, earlier this month, also launched a new program to accelerate the development and deployment of shelf-stable blood analog products for military use in austere conditions. The agency has solicitedproposals, due June 24, for technology to deliver “a transformative, end-to-end resuscitation system that redefines far-forward trauma care.”
The agency said its goal is to have Food and Drug Administration-authorized, deployable technology as early as fiscal year 2029.
Defense Authorization
The Senate and House Armed Services Committees have included provisions in their annual defense authorization measures that aim to commercialize and mass-produce the synthetic blood.
“Utilizing biotechnology, this innovation has the potential to save countless warfighters’ lives by enabling rapid access to blood at the front lines,” both House and Senate lawmakers said in the reports accompanying the two versions of the defense authorization bills.
Both chambers are expected to consider their versions of the must-pass annual defense authorization measures over the next few weeks.
The provisions in the two bills are almost identical, requiring reports to the defense panels on the current status of the research and prototype efforts, challenges to commercializing the prototypes as well as ways to overcome them, and a plan for operational fielding and deployment of the shelf-stable blood.
Focus on Biotech
Additionally, the House’s defense authorization measure (H.R. 8800) would spur a pilot program on forward-deployable bio-manufacturing. It would also authorize another pilot program to speed up recruitment of talent in critical technology areas, including biotechnology.
The House measure would also add biotechnology to the Pentagon’s annual report on China’s military and security developments.
Meanwhile, the Senate’s draft measure (S.4784) would require a Government Accountability Office audit on whether US military specifications for equipment “intentionally or unintentionally disadvantage biotechnology-derived products and biomaterials.” The watchdog would also have to “assess whether reforms are necessary to enable the DOD to purchase and adopt biotechnology-derived products while maintaining mission assurance, safety, and performance standards,” the Senate Armed Services panel wrote in the report accompanying the defense bill.
The Senate panel said in the report it was concerned that the US government is “inadequately informed about its current position in global biotechnology competition relative to other countries, especially near-peer countries like China.”
The panel is requiring the Pentagon’s director of the Office of Net Assessment and the Biotechnology Management Office to brief lawmakers no later than April 2027 on the state of bio-industrials, biomanufacturing, and other non-pharmaceutical biotechnology applications in the US compared to near-peer competitors.
“The briefing shall also assess factors related to US competitiveness in developing, scaling, and commercializing biotechnology, including research, workforce, infrastructure, supply chain vulnerabilities, and available private capital,” the report said.