Is the pharmaceutical industry conducting drug tests in China? House Committee wants answers from FDA

Republican Rep. John Moolenaar (MI), chairman of the Select Committee on China, and ranking Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) said U.S. pharmaceutical companies have partnered with Chinese military hospitals to conduct hundreds of clinical trials over the past decade, including in Xinjiang, home to millions of ethnic minorities where the Chinese government has launched a campaign against human rights abuses..

“For over a decade, American biopharmaceutical companies appear to have conducted clinical trials with Chinese military organizations, and particularly with medical centers and hospitals affiliated with the People's Liberation Army, to determine the safety and efficacy of new drug candidates prior to approval,” Moolenaar and Krishnamoorthi wrote in an Aug. 19 letter to Robert Califf, head of the Food and Drug Administration.

“These joint research activities raise serious concerns that critical intellectual property (IP) is at risk of being transferred to the PLA or appropriated by the People’s Republic of China…,” the letter states. “We believe that U.S. biopharmaceutical companies may inadvertently benefit from data generated from clinical trials involving the [Chinese Communist Party] forced to participate as victim patients.”

In April, Krishnamoorthi and Moolenaar's Republican predecessor, Rep. Michael Gallagher, called on the Biden administration to add seven Chinese biotech companies to a list compiled by the Defense Department to highlight firms allegedly working with Beijing's military.