by Jake Smith
A group of bipartisan lawmakers are demanding an investigation into U.S. pharmaceutical companies that allegedly have troubling ties to China, according to a letter obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Lawmakers on Monday brought the matter to the attention of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) letter that they have identified some American pharmaceutical companies that have collaborated with Chinese militaryraising concerns that U.S. intellectual property is being siphoned off by Beijing. The lawmakers also pointed out that several U.S. pharmaceutical companies have also conducted clinical trials in China’s Xinjiang province, a region known for “genocide” against religious minorities, according to a letter sent by lawmakers to the agency.
Republican Reps. John Moolenaar and Neal Dunn and Democratic Reps. Anna Eshoo and Raja Krishnamoorthi, three of whom are members of the House of Representatives Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, are listed as signatories to the letter.
The letter claims that U.S. pharmaceutical companies have conducted “hundreds” of clinical trials in China over the past decade, pointing to one example in which the company listed the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) as a research partner in the trial. Other pharmaceutical companies were identified as previously working with PLA facilities to recruit patients for clinical trials or conducting trials at a PLA hospital, according to the letter.
“These joint research activities raise serious concerns that critical intellectual property (IP) is at risk of being transferred to the PLA or acquired under the National Security Law of the People’s Republic of China (PRC),” the letter to the FDA reads. “Conversely, there are also concerns about the reliability of clinical trial data generated overseas by PLA institutions.”
In addition, numerous U.S. clinical drug trials were publicly cited as having been conducted in hospitals in Xinjiang, China, “where credible investigative reports have shown that ethnic minorities in the region are repeatedly forced by [Chinese Communist Party] “give up their bodily autonomy,” according to the letter. The United States has accused The Chinese Communist Party has committed grave human rights abuses against Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic groups in Xinjiang, including detaining them in internment camps and forcing them into slave labor.
According to the State Department, more than a million Uighurs and other ethnic Muslim groups have been detained in detention or internment centers since 2017. report from June, adding that other estimates put the number closer to three million.
“The clinicaltrials.gov website also lists biopharmaceutical studies conducted in hospitals located in the United States. [Xinjiang]”the lawmakers wrote in a letter to the FDA. “As we know, companies simply do not have the capacity to conduct due diligence to ensure that clinical trials conducted in [Xinjiang] are voluntary. Given this, we believe that U.S. biopharmaceutical entities may be inadvertently profiting from data from clinical trials in which CCP coerced patient victims to participate.”
The lawmakers asked the FDA to respond whether it had reviewed clinical trials conducted with PLA or at PLA facilities, and whether the FDA had ever been denied access to clinical sites in China. They also asked the FDA whether it had informed U.S. pharmaceutical organizations that it had conducted research or trials in Xinjiang.
Lawmakers set an October 1 deadline for responses.
“Data from U.S. biopharmaceutical companies that conducted clinical trials at PLA-affiliated institutions or other organizations in the XUAR are likely already in FDA’s possession,” the lawmakers wrote. “We therefore request a prompt response.”
“The FDA has received the letter and will respond directly to members of Congress,” an FDA spokesperson told DCNF.
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Jake Smith is a reporter at the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “John Moolenaar” by Congressman John Moolenaar. Photo “Neal Dunn” by Congressman Neal Dunn, MD. Photo “Anna Eshoo” by Congresswoman Anna Eshoo. Photo “Raja Krishnamoorthi” by Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi. Background photo “Chinese Army” by Mil.ru.CC BY 4.0.
