By Karen Freifeld
(Reuters) – The U.S. House of Representatives committee on China has asked the FBI and the intelligence community to brief GenScript Biotechnology Co and three subsidiaries to determine whether the Chinese Communist Party has influence over its operations.
In a letter dated May 30 to the FBI and the office of the U.S. director of national intelligence, committee chairman John Moolenaar and ranking member Raja Krishnamoorthi said GenScript’s work with U.S. companies and the government raises concerns about the intellectual property of US companies and could help improve China’s biotech capabilities.
The three subsidiaries mentioned in the letter are Bestzyme, Legend Biotech and ProBio.
Drugmaker Legend partnered with Johnson & Johnson in 2017 to develop cancer cell therapy Carvykti. They sold $500 million of the drug last year and expect sales to reach $5 billion a year.
GenScript, Legend and J&J did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Neither do the other subsidiaries. GenScript is a pharmaceutical research and manufacturing services provider with more than 200,000 customers in more than 100 countries and a sales, manufacturing and research and development presence in China, the US, Europe and Asia-Pacific, according to its site.
Lawmakers’ interest in GenScript comes two weeks after another House committee approved a bill that would restrict business with China’s WuXi AppTec, WuXi Biologics BGI, MGI and Complete Genomics, and other potential biotech companies of concern.
The project must still be approved by the House and Senate before President Joe Biden can sign it into law. But if approved, it would pressure U.S. pharmaceutical and health care companies to lessen their dependence on Chinese research and production.
“GenScript’s role as a contract development and manufacturing organization, including services such as producing custom gene synthesis for U.S. companies and government entities, raises concerns about potential risks to U.S. companies’ intellectual property and the broader role of GenScript in advancing PRC (China) biotechnology capabilities,” the letter said.
(Reporting by Karen Freifeld; additional reporting by Mike Erman in New York; editing by Chris Sanders and Josie Kao)
