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A Massachusetts lawmaker who frequently criticizes China has become the unlikely face of opposition to legislation that seeks to blacklist Chinese contractors like WuXi Biologics. Last month, Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) failed to stop the House of Representatives from passing the Biosecure Act. But he persuaded a surprising number of influential Democrats to vote “no” and is now in conversations with senators and House representatives about amending the legislation as it moves to the Senate. As distrust of China reaches a fever pitch in Congress, drugmakers with supply chains threatened by Biosecure have been unwilling to publicly oppose the legislation for fear of political blowback. The opposition mantle has been assumed by McGovern, who argues the bill lacks due process and resembles how the Chinese government operates. “I’m at the point in my career where I’m going to vote in ways I think [are] right. I’m not going to go along to get along,” McGovern said in an interview with Endpoints News . To his critics, McGovern isn’t taking a principled stand but rather protecting WuXi Biologics’ plans to build a 190,000-square-foot biomanufacturing plant in his district. WuXi reportedly cited Biosecure when pausing work on the facility earlier this year, Endpoints previously reported . “If people say this is about a business in my district, and that’s it, I resent that,” McGovern said. Elected to Congress in 1997 and representing Massachusetts’ 2nd Congressional District, McGovern might seem like a natural ally to the Biosecure Act. The legislation targets five companies — WuXi Biologics, WuXi AppTec, BGI, MGI and Complete Genomics — over fears that they could furnish China’s government with sensitive health information. A member of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, he sponsored a recent law that advocates for a peaceful resolution of the China-Tibet dispute. “I despise bullies, and I want an even playing field when I think people are being persecuted,” McGovern said. In July, the Chinese government sanctioned him for “frequently interfering” in its domestic affairs, an action that he wears as a badge of honor. Nick Shipley, founder of the biopharma consulting firm Cronus Consulting, said McGovern is uniquely positioned to lead the charge against Biosecure. “He’s not necessarily vulnerable to some of the electoral politics that others are, and his record on China is viewed as strong,” Shipley said. McGovern is widely expected to win reelection in November, in a race in which the economy and border eclipse China as top issues. His independent challenger in the upcoming election acknowledged it would be “really, really, really tough” to prevail . During this election cycle, McGovern has raised $979,000, largely from healthcare facilities and trade unions, according to the campaign spending website OpenSecrets.org. He received contributions from two privately-held biopharma companies: $9,900 from Dragonfly Therapeutics and $6,600 from Ischemix. The companies did not respond to requests for comment. There are limits to McGovern’s hawkish views on China. He cited free speech concerns when voting against the TikTok ban. McGovern believes Biosecure was rushed and doesn’t include strong rationale for why certain companies were added. “If there’s a bill that comes to the floor and it’s anti-China, then they automatically vote for it with very few questions asked,” McGovern said. “I understand where they’re coming from, but I think it’s important that the legislation we pass be good legislation.” BGI, one of the five companies named in Biosecure, has allegedly conducted research alongside the Chinese military. WuXi AppTec, another firm in the bill, has been accused of sharing a US client’s intellectual property with the Chinese government without permission. The companies have denied the accusations. The inclusion of WuXi AppTec’s sister company, WuXi Biologics, has troubled McGovern. He said a review of classified materials and conversations with administration officials didn’t make a clear case for targeting the company. “I asked them, basically, ‘Am I crazy? Is this company a really bad actor and I just don’t know?’” he said. In February, the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party asked the Defense, Commerce and Treasury departments to investigate WuXi Biologics and WuXi AppTec. The leaders of the committee said then that WuXi Biologics closely works with the Chinese government, including to reduce the country’s foreign reliance on biomedicine. WuXi Biologics has stated that it does not pose a threat to national security. The company did not respond to a request for comment. Other members of Congress have walked away from classified briefings with a very different interpretation than McGovern’s. Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-OH) said the ties between the companies named in Biosecure and the Chinese government could one day lead to bioweapons that are used against Americans. “If what he’s waiting for is them to be guilty of creating something that kills Americans because of the data they’ve been able to collect, I think that’s a bad idea,” Wenstrup said in an interview with Endpoints. Before Biosecure came up for a House vote, McGovern shared his concerns with the bill’s authors. He was coming from a place of influence: McGovern chairs the powerful House Rules Committee, which plays a role in setting the legislative agenda. What McGovern deemed productive conversations didn’t result in bill changes, he said, and to his surprise, House leadership placed Biosecure on the suspension calendar. That meant the bill couldn’t be amended on the floor and needed a two-thirds majority to pass. McGovern called up legislators and urged them to vote “no.” He failed. The House voted 306-81 in favor of the bill, though he convinced influential Democrats like Reps. Hakeem Jeffries, Katherine Clark and Jamie Raskin to vote against it. Their offices did not respond to requests for comment. McGovern believes he could have swung the vote against the bill if given extra time. “It was rushed to the floor,” McGovern said. “Most of the people I talked to ended up voting ‘no,’ and I think more would have if there was more time.” The Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party disagrees with his assessment. A committee spokesperson said the bill enjoys bipartisan support and was the result of months of “careful consideration and investigation.” But McGovern’s ability to court big-name Democrats in the House could make the bill’s already complicated path in the Senate even tougher. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who voiced concerns over trade isolationism when casting the lone vote against a Senate committee version of the bill, has pledged to block quick passage of the legislation . His office did not respond to a request for comment. “Even before the House floor vote, it was always questionable what the path forward for this bill was in the Senate,” said Stephen Rademaker, an attorney with Covington & Burling who specializes in international policy. If not a standalone bill, senators could potentially add Biosecure to the annual defense policy bill. McGovern said he’s talking with representatives and senators about amending the bill. He wants to bolster the criteria for which companies are included, notably by working more closely with federal agencies to determine if a company is a bad actor. “I would prefer to go back to the drawing board and start again,” McGovern said.

Five months after Eli Lilly and Company received two important approvals in China for tizepatide -- one for type 2 diabetes and the other for obesity -- it announced plans to expand its production site in Suzhou, China. To meet the demand for these and other drugs in development. The move signals the company's long-term commitment to China and comes as Eli Lilly chooses to continue expanding its presence in the country amid rising geopolitical tensions between the two countries. An Eli Lilly spokesperson confirmed to the press that the company has set aside $200 million to upgrade its Suzhou manufacturing facility. The new expansion will bring Lilly's total investment in Suzhou to nearly 15 billion yuan ($2.1 billion), according to a press release issued by Chinese state media. The plant, with a 28-year history, is Lilly's only production facility in China and currently employs about 500 people. Eli Lilly China said that with the expansion, the company plans to add 120 new jobs at the facility to support the simultaneous supply of products to the Chinese market and the European market. This move will not only strengthen Lilly's manufacturing capabilities in the Chinese market, but also further solidify its global leadership position in the treatment of diabetes and obesity. The move also reaffirms Eli Lilly's commitment to China at a time of tension between the two countries. In March, Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks expressed a willingness to increase investment in China and strengthen research and development cooperation during a meeting with China's Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao. This statement shows Lilly's importance to the Chinese market and its strategy to seek balanced development in the global pharmaceutical industry. At the same time, the domestic political environment in the United States has also had an impact on Lilly's global strategy. Last month, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to pass the BioSafety Act, a bill that seeks to terminate federal contracts with five life science companies with ties to China, including Wuxi Apptec, Wuxi Apptec Biologics, BGI, MGI and Complete Genomics, citing alleged national security concerns. Although the bill still needs to be voted through by the US Senate, it has already attracted a lot of attention and discussion in the industry. In this context, Eli Lilly is not only making large-scale manufacturing investments in Suzhou to meet the market demand for its blood sugar regulation products Mounjaro (for diabetes) and Zepbound (for obesity), but also seeking new growth and cooperation opportunities globally. These efforts are designed to ensure that Lilly can remain competitive in the global pharmaceutical market and provide innovative treatment options to patients.

Although the US Biosafety Act has not yet officially come into effect, its potential impact on domestic pharmaceutical companies is still significant, like a pending sword. According to the British "Financial Times" recently reported that because of the Biosafety Act "as a potential threat to US national security, two well-known" pharmaceutical "companies are considering adjusting their business layout to deal with potential risks. Specifically, Wuxi Apptec is considering the sale of its Advanced Therapies Manufacturing unit (ATU), which focuses on cell and gene therapies, at its four sites in Philadelphia, while Wuxi has also hired professional advisers to assess potential buyer interest in parts of its European production sites, particularly the two German manufacturing plants it acquired and expanded from Bayer AG. Management has expressed concern that these facilities may no longer meet the Company's future strategic development needs. The U.S. House of Representatives voted on the BioSecurity Act (H.R.8333) on September 9 local time, and passed the bill by 306 votes in favor and 81 votes against. The bill limits the federal government's business with some biotech providers on the grounds of "national security," and specifically names five Chinese biotech companies as "subjects of interest," including Wuxi Apptec, Wuxi Biotech, BADA Group, BADA Intelligence and its subsidiary Complete Genomics. In response to this situation, Wuxi AppTec issued a statement on September 10, strongly opposed this non-due process and unreasonable default designation. The company maintains that it has not, does not, and will not pose a national security risk to the United States or any other country, and that it has not been sanctioned by any U.S. government agency. The storm, which began in January 2024, is expected to continue in the coming months. According to the US legislative process, the bill still needs to be voted on by the Senate, and the version passed by the two chambers needs to be reconciled before it is finally submitted to the US President to sign into law. Before then, the bill still needs to be approved by the Senate, where the legislative process is unclear. It is worth noting that in the version passed by the House of Representatives, the named companies actually enjoy a certain buffer period to continue to perform contracts funded by the U.S. government for customers until 2032. Affected by this, the share price of the named "pharmaceutical" company suffered a heavy fall on September 10. Wuxi AppTec's A-shares and Hong Kong shares closed down 5.38 per cent and 10.43 per cent, respectively, while Wuxi Biotech's Hong Kong shares fell 3.88 per cent. In addition, BGI and BGI also closed down 2.73 percent and 1.5 percent, respectively. On the morning of October 8, WuXi AppTec issued a voluntary announcement to respond to the rumor of the sale of WuXi ATU business. The company said it is currently actively evaluating options to ensure the continued operation of the WuXi ATU business, and stressed that no final decisions have been made regarding the sale of the business. At the same time, a company spokesperson said that it will evaluate options to continue operating ATU based on priorities to safeguard the needs of employees and patients in urgent need of time-critical, life-saving treatments. On the other hand, last month the US House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the BioSecurity Act, which is now awaiting further consideration in the Senate. If the bill eventually becomes law, it is expected to have a profound impact on the biopharmaceutical industry, especially for those companies that are highly dependent on third-party service providers in China. According to GlobalData, the legislation could affect the development of more than 120 U.S. drugs that work with companies mentioned in the BIOSECURE Act, half of which are in clinical trials and a third are in early preclinical research and discovery. From the financial report data over the years, the domestic leading CXO companies such as Wuxi Apptec, Pharmaron, Kelaeeng, etc., their overseas market revenue accounted for more than 70%, and the scope of overseas market expansion has gradually expanded from the United States to Europe, Southeast Asia and other regions. In response to potential market changes, these companies are actively accelerating the pace of overseas layout. For example, Wuxi Apptech has built a R & D and production base in Singapore, Kellein has completed the layout of a European R & D and production base, Botten Shares in Slovenia has also been put into operation, and Kyushu Pharmaceutical has set up wholly-owned subsidiaries in Japan and Germany to build CRO service platforms. Chen Zhisheng, CEO of Wuxi Biologics, previously said that Wuxi Biologics' business in Europe has grown significantly, from the initial market share of less than 5% to 30%, with Switzerland, Germany and the United Kingdom as the main market sources, and the business scale of individual countries has approached the level of the Chinese market.