Bipartisan Bill Seeks to Target Chinese Biotech Firms to Protect Americans’ Personal Health Data

The legislation would protect American patient information and taxpayer dollars from falling into the hands of foreign adversaries’ biotechnology firms.

Laboratory technicians speak while working on samples to be tested for COVID-19 at a BGI laboratory in Wuhan, China, on Feb. 6, 2020. STR/AFP via Getty Images

A group of bipartisan lawmakers have introduced the BIOSECURE Act to prohibit the federal government from contracting and financing Chinese biotechnology firms and foreign adversaries’ biotech companies of concern.

“As Americans have their blood drawn or take other medical tests each day, few have any idea that their personal genetic information could be going to biotech companies controlled by the Chinese Communist Party and other adversaries that would weaponize our own genomes against us,” Rep. Raja Krishnamoorth (D-Ill.), ranking member on the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), said in a statement on May 10.