While the China-targeting Biosecure Act failed to pass muster in a key defense spending bill last year, a retooled version of the legislation looks increasingly poised to become law, albeit with a few adjustments.
Over the weekend, the Senate and House released the final text of the National Defense Authorization Act for the 2026 fiscal year, tucking in language that would significantly stymie the ability of certain Chinese life sciences companies and businesses that work with them from securing federal contracts with the U.S.
The House and Senate must now vote on the final language of the bill before it crosses the desk of President Donald Trump. Congress has passed the annual defense bill, which is viewed by many as must-pass legislation, every year for decades, Bloomberg noted Monday.
According to the bill’s text, executive agencies would be prohibited from procuring biotechnology equipment or services from so-called companies “of concern”—which the legislation defines as those with ties to the Chinese military. Moreover, executive agencies would be barred from entering or renewing contracts with drugmakers and other life sciences outfits that leverage those blacklisted companies’ services, effectively icing certain Chinese service providers out of the U.S. market.
The legislation repackages and tweaks certain terms included in the Biosecure Act, which failed to make the cut last year when it was omitted from the National Defense Authorization Act vote for 2025. The previous version of Biosecure sparked controversy by explicitly naming five Chinese companies of concern: WuXi AppTec, WuXi Biologics, BGI Group, MGI and Complete Genomics.
The legislation now relies on a preexisting Defense Department list of companies that calls out genetic testing outfit BGI Group and its spinoff MGI Tech, but notably omits the WuXi companies, which are prominent forces for contract manufacturing and research in the biopharma industry.
Still, WuXi AppTec may not be out of the woods just yet, after the Pentagon earlier this year reportedly wrote to Congress warning that the contracting giant assists the Chinese military while also conducting business in the U.S.
In the letter, U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg allegedly urged the House of Representatives and the Senate Armed Services Committee to include WuXi AppTec and several other companies on the Department of Defense’s 1260H list, which is updated annually and catalogues firms that pose alleged supply chain and security risks to the U.S., Bloomberg reported at the time.
The WuXi companies were quick to challenge their characterization in the original Biosecure Act, and concerns mounted last year that a crackdown on certain Chinese companies could hamstring a U.S. biopharma industry highly reliant on the outsourcing of manufacturing and research.
Under the latest version of the China competition legislation, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is on the hook to publish a formal list of companies of concern within a year, should the provision be passed.
As for how the latest legislation would work in practice, several provisions appear designed to provide an off-ramp for drugmakers engaged with targeted companies. In particular, the bill includes a five-year exclusion period from its potential passage that would give drugmakers working with those companies of concern time to adjust their operations.