China has elevated biotechnology to a national strategic priority — alongside semiconductors and aerospace — and is now directly challenging the Netherlands in a sector it can ill afford to lose. According to medical professor and biotech entrepreneur Sander van Deventer, the Dutch industry faces a funding shortfall, underinvestment in scientific education, and slow regulatory processes, raising the prospect of what he calls a "German car industry scenario" — a reference to how Chinese dominance in electric vehicles has put German automakers under severe pressure. McKinsey estimates that new drugs can reach the market in China up to two and a half years faster than the global average and at significantly lower cost, prompting a growing number of European and American pharmaceutical companies to conduct clinical trials there instead of at home, a trend that risks hollowing out medical expertise in the Netherlands and wider Europe.