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A bipartisan group of US House lawmakers are raising concerns about what they say is evidence of US biopharmaceutical companies conducting clinical trials in partnership with Chinese hospitals located in Xinjiang, where the US has accused Beijing of committing genocide against Uyghur Muslims.
The lawmakers warned the Food and Drug Administration in a letter that US companies “could be unintentionally profiting from the data derived from clinical trials during which the CCP forced victim patients to participate,” referring to the Chinese Communist Party.
The group, led by House China select committee leaders Reps. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., and Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., asked the FDA to investigate.
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Their Monday letter also stated that the investigation of publicly available data suggests US biopharmaceutical companies have conducted “hundreds” of clinical trials over the past decade with hospitals in China associated with the Chinese military, the People’s Liberation Army.
“These collaborative research activities raise serious concerns that critical Intellectual Property (IP) is at risk of being transferred to the PLA or being co-opted under the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) National Security Law,” the letter said. “Conversely, there are also concerns with the trustworthiness of clinical trial data produced overseas from PLA institutions.”
Reps. Neal Dunn, R-Fla., and Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., also signed onto the letter to the FDA.
An FDA spokesperson said the agency received the letter and would respond directly to the lawmakers, but didn’t comment on the claims.
Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, dismissed the concerns about risks to intellectual property and said the accusation of “so-called ‘genocide’ in Xinjiang” is “sheer falsehood” when reached for comment about the letter.
“China-US cooperation in health care, like in many other fields, is mutually beneficial in essence. Politicizing and instrumentalizing normal cooperation between the two sides is not in the interest of no one, including the US side,” he told Semafor.