House passes act aimed at 5 Chinese drug services firms

The US House of Representatives passed the Biosecure Act on Monday, increasing the controversial legislation’s chance of becoming law.

The legislation is intended to prevent US pharmaceutical companies that receive federal funding from working with five Chinese services firms—WuXi AppTec, WuXi Biologics, BGI Group, MGI, and Complete Genomics—citing concerns about national security.

The bill, which has received solid bipartisan support since its introduction in January, passed by a vote of 306 to 81. Among legislators, 195 Republicans voted in favor and 2 in opposition, while 111 Democrats gave it a thumbs-up, and 79 rejected it. A similar bill has been introduced in the Senate and must pass there before the legislation can be sent to the president for passage or veto.

The bill claims that BGI, MGI, and Complete Genomics—all genomics companies—have ties to the Chinese government and potentially dangerous access to the genetic data of US citizens.

Meanwhile, the allegations against WuXi AppTec, a leading contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) and one of the world’s largest employers of chemists, are that the company has sponsored “military-civil fusion” events in China and received investments from a military-civil integration investment fund. The bill says WuXi Biologics CEO Chris Chen was previously an adjunct professor at the People’s Liberation Army Academy of Military Medical Sciences.

House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) said on the House floor on Monday that the companies named in the bill have conducted research alongside the Chinese military. He added that both WuXi companies operate genetic testing centers established in coordination with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP); they’ve conducted research to promote the Chinese military; and they’ve stolen US firms’ intellectual property.

“This bill is a necessary step toward protecting Americans’ sensitive health-care data from the CCP before these companies become more embedded in the US economy,” Comer said.

The act is supported by the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, a leading US trade group. But the Chinese companies have repeatedly denied the allegations. Complete Genomics says in an email that geopolitics instead of facts drove the House passage of the Biosecure Act.

“The Senate should slow the haphazard and unconstitutional approach the House has taken and fix the BIOSECURE Act. It’s now up to the Senate to consider how the entrenched monopolist in genomic sequencing in the U.S. is entirely excluded from the BIOSECURE Act despite their heavy investment in the Chinese market,” the company says in an apparent reference to the sequencing giant Illumina.

WuXi AppTec earlier told C&EN that it does not have a human genomics business and does not collect human genetic data. “Like many across the industry, we have concerns about the bill’s broader impact on U.S. leadership in biotechnology innovation, drug development, and patient care,” a spokesperson said in an email.

Industry executives have mixed thoughts on how the bill might affect the US pharmaceutical industry. While some biotech companies say they rely heavily on WuXi AppTec for their research and manufacturing needs, others are scouting for alternatives in India, Europe, and North America.

How the bill will affect the named Chinese firms remains to be seen. But so far, WuXi Biologics’ business doesn’t seem to have slowed down. In August, the company said it added 61 new projects in the first 6 months of 2024, half of which came from the US. Likewise, WuXi AppTec says it added over 500 new customers in the first half of 2024.

Even if passed into law, the bill would give companies with federal funding until January 2032 to disassociate from the Chinese firms.