Amid a U.S. probe into its ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), GenScript has revealed that it is setting up shop in Australia, with a new operations and logistics center designed to support the "rapid growth of the biotechnology sector in Australia" and more broadly to bolster GenScript’s presence in the Asia-Pacific region.
With the Sydney facility, the 22-year-old company will be able to deliver reagents and other products to Australian researchers and biotech companies, freeing them from logistical challenges such as permit applications, customs clearance and taxes, GenScript said.
“Establishing a logistics hub in Sydney enables us to deliver more localized support to our Australian partners,” Sherry Shao, GenScript’s rotating CEO, said in the release. “We see this as more than just an operational expansion—it’s about building long-term relationships within the region’s biotech ecosystem.”
The highlight of the New Jersey-based company’s move into Australia is that it can provide next-day shipping for high-demand products, such as off-the-shelf mRNA, growth factors and Cas proteins, it said.
The expansion comes as the House Committee on the CCP is gathering information on GenScript.
In June, committee chairman John Moolenaar, R-Michigan, and ranking member Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Illinois, asked for an intelligence briefing, with concerns that the company was contributing to the CCP’s strategy of “achieving self-reliance in critical technologies and leveraging these advancements to boost China’s global competitiveness and influence,” the lawmakers wrote in their request at the time.
“While these aspirations do not necessarily equate to illicit behavior, they do underscore the need for vigilance in safeguarding U.S. competitiveness and preventing the transfer of sensitive technologies and capabilities to PRC state-influenced entities,” the lawmakers added.
One target of the investigation was Legend Biotech, a former business unit of GenScript. Three weeks ago, separate security filings from the entities revealed that GenScript is no longer Legend’s majority shareholder.
Legend had been warning in its annual securities filings that GenScript’s interests “may not always coincide with our corporate interests or the interests of our other shareholders.”
Legend has become a force partnering with Johnson & Johnson on CAR-T multiple myeloma therapy Carvykti. Thanks to an FDA approval in second-line multiple myeloma, Carvykti’s sales, as booked by J&J, jumped 87% year over year in the third quarter to reach $286 million.
While GenScript has a market cap of $23.4 billion, Legend’s is at $7.4 billion.