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the u.s. house of representatives will vote on the biosecurity act on september 9, local time. the bill will restrict u.s. federal agencies from doing business with foreign biotechnology companies on the grounds of "national security."

u.s. democratic congressman jim mcgovern recently said he would vote against the legislation's restrictions on china's wuxi biologics, bgi genomics and other biotech companies.

mcgovern is a democratic congressman who serves on the u.s. congressional-china commission and is influential on issues related to china and the united states.

mcgovern said that while biosafety is an important topic, he believes there is no process for how these companies will be included in the new legislation, and he was unable to get a straight answer as to why companies like wuxi biologics were included in the bill.

"the bottom line is, this is a bad bill," mcgovern said. meanwhile, a chinese company is building a factory in massachusetts, where mcgovern is based. public information shows that on january 8, wuxi biologics announced that it would expand the production capacity of its worcester, massachusetts, usa (mfg11, biological drug bulk solution plant) to 36,000 liters, which is expected to be officially operational in 2025 and put into gmp production in 2026.

in may this year, a revised version of the draft biosafety law added a non-retroactive clause that exempts existing contracts signed before the proposed restrictive provisions came into effect. however, the draft still claims to be intended to protect americans' personal health and genetic information. once passed and becomes a bill, it will restrict the ability of american life science companies to sign contracts with biotechnology companies that "have relations with the chinese government or other designated foreign governments" on the grounds of national security.

an american biopharmaceutical investor told the first financial reporter that in recent months, companies such as wuxi biologics have been actively lobbying in the united states.

the biosafety act must be passed by both the u.s. house of representatives and the senate, and ultimately signed by u.s. president biden before it can become law.