US-China tensions threaten to ensnare additional Chinese biopharma contractors

In re­cent weeks, pro­posed fed­er­al leg­is­la­tion has forced US drug­mak­ers to re­think their re­la­tion­ship with a Chi­nese com­pa­ny that’s a sta­ple in drug de­vel­op­ment. Now, the in­dus­try is start­ing to wake up to the po­ten­tial for re­stric­tions on ad­di­tion­al Chi­nese biotech con­trac­tors.

The Biose­cure Act threat­ens to black­list WuXi AppTec and oth­er “com­pa­nies of con­cern” from do­ing busi­ness in the US. But less known is that the bill could ex­pand to tar­get ad­di­tion­al Chi­nese firms, in­clud­ing con­trac­tors like Bei­jing-head­quar­tered Phar­maron, which is the sec­ond-biggest con­tract re­search or­ga­ni­za­tion af­ter WuXi; and syn­thet­ic DNA com­pa­ny Gen­Script, whose cus­tom man­u­fac­tur­ing ser­vices are based in Nan­jing, Chi­na.

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