Biosecure Act nears vote in Congress

At ChemOutsourcing, a pharmaceutical ingredients conference held early this month in Parsippany, New Jersey, the Biosecure Act was on the minds of many. The legislation , introduced in January and slated for a vote by the US House of Representatives during the week of Sept. 9, seeks to prevent firms that receive federal funds from using five Chinese drug service companies. One of those firms is WuXi AppTec, a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) that counts multiple US pharmaceutical companies among its clients. The company was singled out for its alleged sponsorship of “military-civil fusion” events in China and investments from a military-civil investment fund. WuXi AppTec has denied the allegations. David Gunn, an executive at a European CDMO, anticipates that even if the bill passes into law, not much will change for WuXi AppTec’s business prospects. For one, he said, most US firms that work with the Chinese