Chinese biotech gets relief as US softens view on Biosecure Act

Five Chinese-linked biotechnology firms won a reprieve Saturday when negotiators on a key defense bill decided not to include legislation blacklisting the companies from new federally funded research and contracts.

The US House earlier this year resoundingly voted in favor of the blacklist legislation, dubbed the Biosecure Act, and a bipartisan group in the Senate supported the measure as well. But senior House Democrats, including Jim McGovern of Massachusetts and Jamie Raskin of Maryland, said in interviews this week they still objected to naming specific companies in the legislation.

McGovern, the top Democrat on the Rules Committee, and Raskin, the top Democrat on the Oversight panel, said separately there should be due process to get on any list blacklisting companies from US-funded research, as well as a process to get off of such a list.


Lawmakers had been discussing potential tweaks to the legislation, such as providing an executive review process that might make the bill more likely to survive a court challenge.

It will be difficult to pass the legislation on its own as the congressional session nears an end. But supporters will still have one last chance to try to attach a version of the bill to legislation Congress must pass before leaving Washington: a funding package needed to keep the government open until next year.