STAT+: At BIO 2026, industry wrestled with Washington politics, and making AI work better

Article excerpt

SAN DIEGO, On the exhibition floor at the annual international BIO conference in San Diego, biotech and startup executives hummed around pavilions representing member countries and states, pausing to watch World Cup games on a giant screen at a South Korean contract drug manufacturer’s booth. Many attendees were thinking about how to compete off the pitch, too. China’s growing power in the business of developing new drugs became a central matter for much of the convention, as well as how to boost biotech in the U.S. The road map of hopes and fears for a U.S.-centric biotech industry followed, both onstage and off: getting a better hold on Washington and beating back pricing policies, as well as moving quickly on artificial intelligence as early strategies yield clues about how to use t