Senators Ask Commerce to Boost Biotech Export Controls

The leaders of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence urged Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to strengthen biotechnology export controls to preserve U.S. leadership in the critical sector.

In a letter dated Feb. 28 and publicly released Feb. 29, Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., the committee’s chairman and vice chairman, respectively, wrote that a lack of U.S. biotech controls is allowing China to acquire “massive amounts of U.S. data and innovation” and use them “to develop weapons and technologies for nefarious ends.”

While the senators welcomed the addition of several Chinese biotechnology companies to the Commerce Department’s Entity List in March 2023 (see 2303020083), they said they’re concerned that such companies continue to “operate freely within the U.S., to purchase and/or invest in U.S. companies and to acquire U.S. data.” The lawmakers said that while Commerce has “ample authorities to take action,” they are willing to work with the department if it thinks more legislation is needed.

The senators noted that they sent a similar letter to the Biden administration a year ago but didn't receive a response. Although the Commerce Department didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on the new letter, Raimondo said in December that Commerce was considering new export restrictions for several sectors, including biotechnology (see 2312040041).

Other lawmakers have raised concerns about China's biotech behavior. In a Feb. 12 letter to Raimondo, two senators and two House members urged the Biden administration to consider placing Chinese biotech company WuXi AppTec on several lists, including the Entity List, partly due to its ties to the Chinese military (see 2402130049). The congressionally mandated National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology is developing recommendations to strengthen U.S. leadership in biotechnology, and it plans to include them in a report to Congress in December (see 2402020043).