On March 2, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the National Financial Regulatory Administration, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the China National Intellectual Property Administration jointly issued the “Several Opinions on Accelerating High-Quality Development of Science and Technology Insurance to Strongly Support High-Level Self-Reliance and Strength in Science and Technology.” This document aims to improve the risk diversification mechanism for major technological breakthroughs and establish a policy framework for science and technology insurance.
The "Opinions" propose 20 policy measures in 6 aspects: strengthening major national scientific and technological tasks, insurance coverage for technology-based small and medium-sized enterprises, insurance coverage in key fields, insurance products and services for technology insurance, investment of insurance funds, and supervision and guarantee.
It is worth noting that "biological manufacturing" has been directly named as one of the key areas that require the development of dedicated insurance products for focused development.
Article 11 of the "Opinions" clearly states: In key technological and industrial development fields such as artificial intelligence, integrated circuits, quantum technology, biological manufacturing, hydrogen energy and nuclear fusion energy, brain-computer interface, embodied intelligence, etc., encourage the development of dedicated technology insurance products and explore the establishment of a special risk reserve system.
This indicates that biological manufacturing has been positioned by the country as one of the frontlines with strategic significance and great risks.
The issuance of this "Opinions" is precisely to provide guarantees for the synthetic biology and biological manufacturing industries with high research and development risks and long transformation cycles, and to equip them with "safety valves" for innovation and development. This also means that the general insurance products that were previously unable to cover the entire research and development process of synthetic biology will become a thing of the past, and the industry will usher in tailor-made risk guarantee solutions.
In addition, the "Opinions" also propose to strengthen insurance coverage for the entire life cycle of technology-based enterprises. Strengthen the development and design of insurance products for key links such as scientific research, technology transfer, and industrialization promotion, promote the promotion and implementation of products such as research and development expense loss insurance, technology transfer expense loss insurance, and first-time (first batch) comprehensive insurance for the first product and the first batch, gradually establish an insurance compensation and risk sharing system covering all links, and smooth the transformation channel from scientific research to market application. Serve key areas such as enterprises' entire life cycle, technology-based enterprises' "going global", technology talents, intellectual property rights, and network security, and achieve breakthroughs and expansion in quality improvement in technology insurance and other key links such as scientific research, technology transfer, and industrialization promotion.
This document will undoubtedly be an important cornerstone for the sustainable and far-reaching development of synthetic biology enterprises in the coming years.
