Sponsors (17)
Authorizes NIST to establish and fund a National Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing Center of Excellence, awarding one competitive grant/other transaction and authorizing $120M for FY2026.
The bill creates a federally funded Center to accelerate U.S. biopharmaceutical manufacturing and workforce development—boosting supply resilience and commercialization capacity—but does so at measurable taxpayer cost and with risks of geographic concentration, IP privatization, and a potential shift of research toward defense priorities.
Hospitals, patients, and the public would gain stronger U.S. biopharmaceutical manufacturing capacity and supply resilience, reducing reliance on foreign supply chains for critical medicines and materials.
Scientists, biotech firms, manufacturers, and startups would get access to a federally funded Center that accelerates scaling lab innovations to commercial biopharmaceutical production and standardizes R&D/manufacturing processes, lowering barriers to commercialization.
Students, current workers, and healthcare technicians would receive expanded workforce training tied to industry partnerships and facility upgrades, strengthening the biotech talent pipeline.
Taxpayers would bear a direct $120 million FY2026 authorization and likely ongoing federal costs to create and operate the Center, increasing public spending with no guaranteed return.
Students, researchers, small businesses, and rural communities may see benefits concentrated at a single selected institution and major research hubs, creating geographic and institutional inequities and barriers for smaller innovators.
Patients and hospitals risk reduced public access or higher costs for new therapies if private partners obtain IP from jointly funded R&D, since privatized IP can limit affordable use of resulting products.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Official title: To establish a Biopharmaceutical Center of Excellence, and for other purposes.
Introduced November 18, 2025 by Christina Houlahan · Last progress November 18, 2025
Creates a National Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing Center of Excellence at NIST by competitively awarding a grant or other transaction agreement to a non‑Federal entity to establish and operate the center. The Center will advance biopharmaceutical manufacturing science and technologies, support workforce training, foster public‑private research and standards, enable interagency data sharing, and may fund construction and scaling research. The bill authorizes $120 million for FY2026 and requires application, selection, reporting, and IP policies within set timelines.