House Subcomittee Testimony_Biosafety and Biosecurity_YASSIF_FINAL_Oct 18 2023

NTI welcomes the inclusion of efforts to “galvanize support for multilateral biosafety and biosecurity commitments and the establishment of regional and global mechanisms to raise the global bar for biosafety and biosecurity norms and practices.” Given rapidly emerging biological risks that accompany science and technology advances, this work is critically important and urgent. [...] As the largest funder of bioscience and biotechnology research and development in the world, the U. [...] We need to invest in and promote biosafety and biosecurity to ensure that biotechnology is developed and deployed in ways that align with United States principles and values and international best practices, and not in ways that lead to accidental or deliberate harm to people, animals, or the environment. [...] The Bioeconomy Executive Order also sets a requirement to launch a Biosafety and Biosecurity Innovation Initiative, to reduce biological risks associated with advances in biotechnology, biomanufacturing, and the bioeconomy, and it calls for priority investments in applied biosafety research and innovations in biosecurity to reduce biological risk throughout the biotechnology R&D and biomanufacturi. [...] government can achieve the biosafety and biosecurity goals it has set for itself–and work with partners in industry, academia, and civil society to foster the development of a biosafety and biosecurity innovation ecosystem–it will be a big win for reducing biological risks domestically and around the world.