The government plays a crucial role with readiness frameworks and incentives—DOE TRL, NIIMBL BRLs, and DOD MRLs could quantify progress, while CHIPS Act-like measures, tax incentives, and R&D credits spur private participation.

BIBs offer a path to preserving American leadership in bio-industrial manufacturing, but success requires deliberate action from corporate leaders, startups, investors, and policymakers, as championed by Henry Lee, PhD, CEO of Cultivarium.

The national strategy blends private entrepreneurship with government support, leveraging initiatives like the National Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Initiative and BioMADE to operationalize milestone-based funding and cost-sharing.

The U.S. bioeconomy is advancing from lab breakthroughs to industrial-scale production, yet financing and incentive structures lag, slowing progress.

Policy momentum is building, with bipartisan interest and bills aimed at enabling biotech innovation and public–private partnerships signaling growing political will for BIB-like models.

Large corporations bring resources—technical expertise, facilities, feedstock access, and supply-chain integration—to accelerate scale-up and improve cost-competitiveness.

A representative payment structure could include upfront IP funding, tech transfer to pilot scale, per-unit cost targets, first shipments, and ESG-related incentives.

Current industrial biotech deals suffer from gaps, as most are fee-for-service, equity-based, or long-term supply arrangements that miss intermediate value and stall after proof-of-concept.

BioIndustrial Bucks (BIBs) would be a tailored milestone-based model with structured payments tied to milestones like pilot-scale demonstrations, cost targets, regulatory approvals, and ESG bonuses.

The Biobucks concept adapts the pharma milestone-based deal model to bio-industrial manufacturing, tying payments to defined manufacturing milestones rather than upfront fees.