China releases list of 43 companies to build biomanufacturing pilot plants
This dwarfs anything else in the world. China is trying to keep it quiet.
In July 2025, our team broke the news that China plans to build 20 pilot scale biomanufacturing platforms by 2027.
It was an aspirational goal set out by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). The July announcement lacked formal pathways or specific priorities.
That changed this month. MIIT and NDRC semi-privately released the pithily titled: “Notice on Further Accelerating the Systematic Deployment and High-Quality Development of Pilot-Scale Platforms in the Manufacturing Industry.”
It includes the following elements:
High level - yet still quite general - goals for biomanufacturing
Specific industry directions both in terms of inputs (like raw materials and equipment) and projected products.
43 Companies to build facilities
The most eye catching announcement is the list of 43 companies to build facilities (I take it to mean 43 separate facilities but that is not 100% clear). It dwarfs any other program in the world to build scale-up facilities. It probably also dwarfs any other current Chinese government emerging tech industrial program.
A few observations:
It is skewed toward industrial applications rather than bioenergy. This is a substantial change in policy to previous decades, and an indication biology is now seen as industrial manufacturing.
Companies from the food additives sector represent the largest number of facilities which indicates the government thinks this is the sector likely to reach profitability first.
Biopharma which traditionally led biomanufacturing plays a middling role. This is again a shift to less mature industries, and signals that China views biology as a platform technology.
Below is a breakdown of the industries in which each listed company operates.
Note: if you sum all the the bars in the above graph, you will get more than 43 (the number of companies). This is because some companies work in more than one industry.
The rest of the plan
The rest of the plan is less specific (at least the snippets I can access). From what I can see, it has several components:
Continued signalling of the high-level priority.
Reporting on the announcement in Sina Finance writes “The notice requires all parties to increase policy support and resource inputs, including funding, land, and talent.”
High level - but vague - goals that there should a broad-based network by 2027
More reporting in Sina Finance: “by the end of 2027, the strength of high-level pilot production platforms will be further enhanced, a modern pilot production platform system will be basically established, and a national pilot production service network for the manufacturing industry with multi-entity participation, multi-field layout, and multi-level services will be initially formed.”
Clear focus industries
Again Sina Finance: pilot platforms are “urgently needed for industrial development in six key areas and 37 key industry directions, including raw material industries, equipment manufacturing, consumer goods industries, information technology, emerging and future industries, and common needs.”
Unfortunately the specific industries are not mentioned in public reporting or on the NDRC or MIIT website. (Let me know if you have access)
China’s government keeps these plans quiet
China prefers to project its industrial strength. It gives foreign investors, domestic audiences and purchasers confidence in Chinese goods and Chinese industrial systems.
However, this has not been the case in biomanufacturing. The recently released documents were originally published on the MIIT website (screenshot here) but are now NOT available through the MIIT. Journalists and companies continue to publish excerpts of the plans, so they have not been blacklisted.
There has been limited - perhaps none - official coverage in English and very little in English more broadly.
My guess is that China is quietly trying to lead while the rest of the world is distracted with AI and critical minerals.
The list of 43 companies (I translated the company/university names using ChatGPT)
They know what they're doing, and probably they try to avoid potential vetos coming from the US gov for equipment or other materials that they might need to equip those plants... let's see!