The U.S. House of Representatives on Monday voted in favor of the BIOSECURE Act, which would restrict American companies from working with specific Chinese biotech companies—potentially putting more pressure on an already-strained drug supply chain.
The legislation gained bipartisan support with the House voting 306–81 to pass it, including 111 Democrats. Still, nearly all of the members of Congress who voted against the bill were Democrats.
Arguing in favor of the BIOSECURE Act, Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, said in his prepared remarks that the bill is designed to “protect U.S. taxpayer dollars from flowing to biotechnology companies that are owned, operated, or controlled by China or other foreign adversaries.”
“This bill is a necessary step toward protecting American’s sensitive healthcare data from the CCP before these companies become more embedded in the U.S. economy, university systems, and federal contracting base,” Comer said. Reps. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), chair and ranking member of the House Select Committee on China, respectively, also made the case for its passage.
With Monday’s vote, the BIOSECURE Act will now move on to the Senate where strong bipartisan support is also likely. The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs passed a similar bill in in March 2024 with only one dissenting vote, according to STAT News.
Introduced in January 2024 by Krishnamoorthi and Reps Mike Gallaghher (R-Wis.), the BIOSECURE Act prohibits U.S. biopharma companies from working with Chinese contractors in the interest of national security. Five companies are currently blacklisted: WuXi Apptec, WuXi Biologics, Beijing Genomics Institute, MGI and Complete Genomics.
In May 2024, Congress amended its original bill with a grandfather clause which would allow existing contracts with Chinese companies until Jan. 1, 2032. The version that the House passed on Monday includes this leeway.
Some analysts contend the BIOSECURE Act could have far-reaching and potentially crippling consequences for the industry.
In an opinion piece in BioSpace on Monday, Jaxon Tan, founder of Momentum AI Communications, and Ivy Yang, columnist for the Financial Times Chinese, argue that the bill’s restrictions would disrupt not only the supply of drugs in the U.S., but also the ability of companies to conduct clinical trials. The ultimate result, according to Tan and Yang, is even more pressure on the country’s supply chain.
The BIOSECURE Act also reveals the weakness of domestic manufacturing capabilities in the U.S., Fernando Muzzio, professor of engineering at Rutgers University, told BioSpace last month. The U.S. has relied excessively on foreign manufacturing giants—mostly in China and India—and has neglected developing its homegrown capacity, Muzzio said.