A bipartisan bill that would prohibit American agencies from working with several Chinese biotech companies, thanks to national security concerns, was approved by a House of Representatives committee on Wednesday. But as it moves ahead, Chinese biotech leaders are jockeying to lobby the United States.
The House Committee on Oversight and Accountability voted 40 to 1 to pass the Biosecure Act. The bill must now pass the rest of the House and Senate before reaching President Joe Biden’s desk for final approval.
If passed into law, the legislation would ban federal contracting with several Chinese companies of concern, including WuXi Biologics, WuXi AppTec, BGI, and Complete Genomics. The bill also bars federal agencies from working with or providing grants to any company that use these companies’ equipment or services.
“U.S. supply chains must break free from our dependency on foreign adversaries —American patients cannot be in a position where we rely on China for genomic testing or basic pharmaceutical ingredients,” said Rep. Brad Wenstrup, a Republican who introduced the revised House bill on Friday with Democratic representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, in a statement. “The BIOSECURE Act is the first step in what I hope will be a multi-faceted approach this Congress to fortify our national health security.”
For his part, Krishnamoorthi posted Wednesday on X that “U.S. taxpayer dollars should not be funding biotech companies controlled by the CCP and the People’s Liberation Army that collect Americans’ genomic data and intellectual property.”
As the bill moves forward in Congress, two WuXi Biologics executives — manufacturing senior vice president William Aitchison and director of public relations Elizabeth Steele have registered to lobby in Congress.
Wuxi Biologics provides manufacturing, research, and development services to pharma companies. A spokesperson for the company told STAT that it does not pose a risk to U.S. national security. “WuXi Biologics is a publicly listed company that maintains its own management team and shareholders and is not controlled nor influenced by any government or political party,” the spokesperson told STAT.