The United States is at risk of losing one of the most important technology races of the 21st century: biotechnology. A 2025 report from a bipartisan, congressionally chartered commission warns that China is closing in on a win, and the United States has only a narrow window to respond.

The report, released by the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology, offers dozens of recommendations, ranging from increasing federal investment and expanding domestic manufacturing to reducing reliance on Chinese suppliers and improving interagency coordination. But one issue receives too little attention. If the United States wants to compete, it must restore trust in the intellectual property rights that enable inventors to turn bold ideas into revolutionary products.

Patents make high-risk innovation financially viable. They allow startups to protect their discoveries, attract capital, and grow. Without reliable patent rights, promising research gets shelved — or picked up and advanced abroad.

This isn’t theoretical. The United States led past waves of innovation — like the explosion of biotech startups after the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 and the 19th-century surge of invention that brought us the telephone and automobile — precisely because it backed inventors with clear, enforceable IP rights.

In biotech, the stakes are higher. The field is transforming how we treat disease, grow food, and manufacture everything from chemicals to advanced materials. And with artificial intelligence accelerating discovery, the pace is exponential. As the Commission notes, tools like AlphaFold from GoogleDeepMind can now model hundreds of millions of protein structures in days, a task that once took years.

China saw this future coming. For more than two decades, it has treated biotechnology as a national strategic priority, pouring money into research, building vast biomanufacturing capacity, and acquiring foreign IP through both legal and illicit means.

Today, Chinese firms produce many of the ingredients U.S. drugmakers rely on. According to the Commission, nearly 80% of American drugmakers depend on Chinese contractors for part of their supply chain.

In a crisis, that kind of reliance could leave Americans without access to critical medicine. The Commission outlines a scenario in which Chinese researchers develop a breakthrough cancer therapy and withhold it during a crisis over Taiwan.

Supply chains collapse. Doctors ration care. The White House faces an impossible choice: hold the line on foreign policy or secure access to lifesaving medicine.

The situation is fictional, but the threat is real.

It doesn’t stop there. The report warns that if China stays on its current path, it could soon control the biological data, manufacturing platforms, and AI tools driving the next generation of industrial and defense technologies.

When innovation stays on U.S. soil, so do the jobs, data, and supply chains that protect our citizens. If the technologies that define the future are instead developed under adversarial regimes, the United States risks dependence on foreign powers not only for products but for strategic capabilities. Falling behind wouldn’t just cost the United States market share. It would endanger national security and global influence.

The Commission is right to emphasize the need for a stronger domestic biotech sector. But efforts to achieve that goal will fall short unless we fix the foundation that enables innovation in the first place.

That foundation, our IP system, is under serious strain. Over the past decade, court decisions have blurred the boundaries of what qualifies for patent protection — what is “patent eligible” — especially in medical diagnostics, synthetic biology, and AI-enabled research.

And even when patents are granted, protecting them has become harder. A little-known administrative body called the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) lets big corporations repeatedly try to invalidate competitors’ patents, forcing startups into expensive and drawn-out legal battles.

At the same time, a 2006 Supreme Court decision made it harder for courts to issue legal orders called injunctions — which stop infringers from continuing to use others’ inventions — even in cases of clear wrongdoing.

These trends have a chilling effect. Investors hesitate to fund science unless they can count on the underlying IP rights. In biotech, where it can cost billions of dollars and more than a decade to develop a single product, that hesitation can kill entire pipelines of innovation.

The good news is that Congress has tools to change course. Three bipartisan proposals in the House and Senate would help. One bill would restore clarity to patent eligibility standards. Another would reform PTAB procedures to curb duplicative challenges to patents. A third would make it easier for courts to block infringers by issuing injunctions.

Together, these reforms would reduce uncertainty, restore balance, and make the United States a more attractive place to innovate and invest.

We still have significant advantages: world-class research institutions, deep capital markets, and a free market that rewards bold ideas. But as the Commission warns, our lead is slipping — and time is short. To stay ahead in the race for biotech dominance, we need to fix the IP system that makes American innovation possible.

But it’s not just sports where concussions occur. The most common cause of concussion in NCAA athletes is a car accident. The most common cause of a concussion overall is a fall. And a hidden demographic of people experience brain injuries at an alarming rate: domestic violence survivors.

Every minute, 32 people in the United States experience violence at the hands of an intimate partner. Roughly half of American women and 40% of American men will experience domestic violence at least once in their lives. Most incidents go unreported. One study found that just one in five victims sought medical help immediately after suffering a head injury. Nearly all these injuries involve a blow to the neck or head. 

Current research indicates that more than 75% of domestic violence survivors suffer one or more traumatic brain injuries. In my experience, the most common response to the question, “How many concussions have you suffered,” is “Too many to count.” 

On any given Sunday, you will see up to 30 medical professionals standing on the sidelines of a professional football game. At a high school game, you are likely to see paramedics within eyesight of the players on the field. There are no medical providers who stand outside the home of domestic violence survivors waiting for an injury to occur. There is no concussion protocol for those who are abused.

In addition to repeated impacts to the head, domestic violence survivors often suffer strangulation, being choked, resulting in decreased oxygen to the brain, loss of bladder and bowel function, seizures, and sometimes death.

The long-term consequences of repeated concussion and strangulation include sleep disturbance, dizziness, personality changes, and memory problems. The most common complaint of a domestic violence survivor who suffers one or more concussions is headaches. One silver lining is that these symptoms are treatable.

Thanks to widespread education and awareness campaigns, athletes have benefited from a sea change in how brain injuries are recognized and treated. We need to bring that same standard of care to survivors of domestic violence by establishing a concussion protocol tailored to their needs.

We must ensure domestic violence survivors receive concussion screenings when they reach the doctor’s office or emergency department — regardless of whether they exhibit clear signs of a traumatic brain injury. New technologies can make brain injury screening simple and accurate. 

Diagnostic tests, like Abbott’s Alinity i TBI test, can help providers evaluate people for traumatic brain injuries with a small blood sample, by measuring two blood biomarkers in the brain. We recently implemented this testing capability at the WVU Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute. We’re one of the first to adopt the brain injury test, where results come back in just 18 minutes. That quick turnaround is especially useful in situations where a provider may have limited time with a survivor who is hesitant to seek medical care. Finally, we must offer everything we provide to athletes: cognitive screening, concussion rehabilitation, and VIP treatment.

At the WVU Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute in Morgantown, we design a comprehensive, tailored treatment plan for each patient, which may also include psychiatry, physical rehabilitation, and speech and vision therapy. Personalized approaches like this one help resolve subtle, lingering problems and prepare patients to protect their brain health after they check out of the hospital. Survivors of domestic violence are our VIPs.

Society has rightly taken steps to ensure athletes receive top-notch treatment whenever they experience a traumatic brain injury. Survivors of domestic violence are every bit as deserving of that level of attention and care.

The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.

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