For decades, venture capitalists have relied on a tried-and-true recipe to make money in biotech: Start with compelling scientific research — usually out of a U.S. university lab — add a dash of veteran executives from a pharmaceutical goliath or big biotech, and finish with tens of millions of dollars. The approach has led to scores of new medicines, successful companies, and financial returns for VC firms and their investors. 

Now, it’s being disrupted. 

In the aftermath of biotech’s Covid-era rally and subsequent decline, the industry has been startled to find that Chinese scientists are conducting innovative research, faster and at lower costs, than their U.S. counterparts. In the United States and elsewhere, meanwhile, investors are being wooed by artificial intelligence, drawing attention and dollars away from biotech.