Via C&EN's Aayushi Pratap, this news on the BIOSECURE Act, from the ChemOutsourcing trade show:
At ChemOutsourcing, a pharmaceutical ingredients conference held early this month in Parsippany, New Jersey, the Biosecure Act was on the minds of many.
The legislation, introduced in January and slated for a vote by the US House of Representatives during the week of Sept. 9, seeks to prevent firms that receive federal funds from using five Chinese drug service companies.
One of those firms is WuXi AppTec, a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) that counts multiple US pharmaceutical companies among its clients. The company was singled out for its alleged sponsorship of “military-civil fusion” events in China and investments from a military-civil integration investment fund. Also named is WuXi AppTec’s sister company, WuXi Biologics, which was added in a May update of the bill.
David Gunn, an executive at a European CDMO, anticipates that even if the bill passes into law, not much will change for WuXi AppTec’s business prospects. For one, he said, most US firms that work with the Chinese CDMO don’t receive government funds, meaning that the act would not legally affect them. “Moreover, many of the bigger pharma companies have long-standing contract relations that can’t be unwound so easily,” he said...
That will be interesting to watch! I bet those firms are watching this very closely. Via FiercePharma, more context on the action in Congress:
After running up against a roadblock earlier this summer, the controversial BIOSECURE Act could gain new momentum next week.
The U.S. House of Representatives is slated to consider the legislation during the week of Sept. 9, according to a website maintained by the congressional chamber. The bill was introduced in January and seeks to halt federal contracts with certain Chinese biotech equipment and service providers over national security concerns.
In its current form, the bill calls out five Chinese life science companies by name, including R&D powerhouse WuXi AppTec and its manufacturing-focused sibling WuXi Biologics—though more companies could be added to the list in the future.
WuXi AppTec and WuXi Bio have repeatedly rejected the claims laid out in the bill, which accuses them—and the genomics companies BGI Group, MGI and Complete Genomics—of having ties to China’s military, internal security forces or intelligence agencies.
Notably, the bill is set to be considered under the House's "suspension of the rules" procedure. This process is generally used to quickly pass noncontroversial measures, Axios reports.
As for what comes next for BIOSECURE, Axios noted that votes on standalone bills are less common in the Senate. In turn, the most likely path forward for the legislation is for it to be folded into the annual defense policy bill this year.
BIOSECURE has won wide bipartisan support since its introduction by former Republican congressman Mike Gallagher early this year. The bill advanced out of the House Oversight Committee with a 40-1 vote in May.
I'm shocked it's going to get a vote on the House floor, but maybe they know that it won't get through the Senate. We shall see...
