① The U.S. House of Representatives passed draft legislation on the Biosafety Act (H.R. 8333) by 306 votes to 81. ② Companies such as Yao Ming Kang De and Yao Ming Biotech strongly oppose it. ③ The bill still needs to be passed by the Senate, and the versions passed by both houses must be harmonized before it is submitted to the US President for signing into law.
“Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily”, September 10 (Editor Zhu Ling) On the 9th local time, the US House of Representatives passed draft legislation on the “Biosafety Act” (H.R. 8333) with 306 votes in favor and 81 against.
Earlier, at a hearing on May 15, local time, the US House Supervisory and Accountability Committee decided to advance H.R. 8333 legislation with 40 votes in favor and 1 against.
The bill restricts the US federal government from doing business with some biotechnology providers on the grounds of “national security.”
The bill specifically names five “biotechnology companies to pay attention to” in China, including Pharmacovigenics, Huada Genomics Group, Huada Intelligent Manufacturing, and Complete Genomics, a subsidiary of Huada Genomics.
The Act allows designated companies to continue to perform contracts funded by the US federal government for their customers until 2032.
These Chinese companies all deny that they pose a threat to Americans' health data or national security.
The bill still needs to be passed by the Senate, and the versions passed by the Senate and House of Representatives will be harmonized before it is submitted to the US President for signing into law.
It is worth mentioning that in this vote, Democratic Representative Jim McGovern publicly opposed the bill, saying that the bill named companies without due process. House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries also voted against it. Meanwhile, the Senate is controlled by the Democratic Party.
After the bill was passed, Yao Ming Kang quickly responded through an announcement on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, saying that the company strongly opposed this kind of predetermined and unreasonable designation without due process. The company firmly believes that Pharmacovich did not pose a national security risk to the US or any other country in the past, present, or future, and that the company has not been subject to any sanctions by US government agencies.
Yao Ming Kangde once again stated that the company has no human genomics business, and that the company's various existing businesses do not involve the collection of human genomics data in the US, China or any other region.
Yao Ming Biotech also responded that as a global biopharmaceutical CRDMO platform, the company has neither human genomics business nor collected human genomics data in any of its global businesses. The Company strongly believes that it has not been, is and will not pose a national security risk to the United States or any other country, and strongly opposes any unproven prescriptive designation without due process. The company will continue to closely monitor the legislative process and continue to communicate with relevant parties. The company is strongly committed to serving customers around the world and operates in accordance with applicable laws and regulations in all regions where it does business.