Pharma’s Almanac: How are Geopolitical Factors Influencing Sourcing & Manufacturing Decisions for 2026 and Beyond?

In Pharma’s Almanac’s recent industry leaders roundtable, Abzena’s CEO, Geoffrey Glass, shared his thoughts on how current geopolitical factors are influencing biopharma’s sourcing and manufacturing decisions for their complex supply chains.

Geopolitical factors are having a bifurcated impact. U.S. pressure has certainly led biopharmaceutical companies to commit to U.S. factories, almost all of which are geared toward large-scale commercial manufacturing. But the pressure on companies from China is having an unexpected reverse result: U.S. pressure on China-based service providers is causing them to be more aggressive with pricing and other tactics to attract early-stage customers in product development, especially cash-conscious biotech companies, who, in turn, are happy to save money now and deal with downstream problems later. This is especially true in Europe, where the negative sentiment toward China isn’t as strong, but we’re seeing it in the United States as well.

For an industry built solely on innovation and intellectual property (IP) that protects novelty, it is surprising to me that, even in the face of known IP risks, the siren song of cash savings and speed now trumps all.

With all the geopolitical talk about artificial intelligence (AI) and chips, would we develop our best next-generation chips in China to save a few near-term dollars? Why are our next-generation complex biologics and other therapeutic candidates any different?

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