Biotech Group Voices Support for US Curbs on China as WuXi Exits

BIO, the world’s largest trade group for the biotechnology industry, has gone from trying to water down proposed US legislation to sever ties with Chinese health care companies, to supporting it.

Controversy caused by the Biosecure Act recently led to WuXi AppTec Co., a major target and supplier of essential ingredients to many of the world’s top 20 pharmaceutical companies, exiting the group. The Shanghai-based firm said in a March 12 letter to the trade group’s head John Crowley that it was ending its membership effective immediately, citing the distraction caused by the proposed legislation.

The efforts “preemptively and ...