Major US pharmaceutical companies have been conducting clinical trials in hospitals affiliated with the Chinese military and may have tested drugs on prisoners in China’s illegal concentration camps.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers has sent a scathing letter asking the FDA for more information about decades of research by companies like Eli Lilly and Pfizer.
The letter claims that these companies have been conducting clinical trials in China at medical centers and hospitals affiliated with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
Some of these investigations took place in regions where the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been accused of setting up camps to house and commit genocide against Uighur Muslims.
This means that these trials may have been conducted with unwilling participants, the letter states.
Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and chairman of the Central Military Commission, has been in power since 2013.
The letter raises concerns about U.S. pharmaceutical research conducted at hospitals affiliated with the Chinese military, primarily over data security and human rights issues.
The representatives said: “We believe that US biopharmaceutical entities may be unwittingly profiting from data derived from clinical trials during which the CCP forced victim patients to participate.”
They also write that they are concerned that the Chinese Communist Party was able to easily access the data collected in these clinical trials.
The letter asked FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf to share more information about the clinical trials conducted in China to address the representatives’ concerns.
These include questions about the FDA’s review of Chinese military-run hospitals, how it measures threats to data security, and whether it warned against testing in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), where China has been accused of being “engaged in genocide of the Uyghur population.”
The group responsible for the letter includes Rep. John Moolenaar of Michigan, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, Rep. Anna Eshoo of California and Rep. Neal Dunn of Florida.
Representative Moolenaar, Representative Dunn and Representative Krishnamoorthi are members of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.
Representative Eshoo has Concerns raised on US health data previously shared with China.
In the letter, the representatives focused on Eli Lilly’s Alzheimer’s drug donanemab, known as Kisunla, and Pfizer’s kidney cancer drug axitinib, known as Inlyta. Axios reported.
These trials were conducted at military-affiliated hospitals.
According to the investigation, Lilly’s trials were conducted at the People’s Liberation Army General Hospital and Medical School and the Army Air Force Medical University.
The Pfizer trial was conducted at a hospital of the People’s Liberation Army Academy of Military Sciences, According to Fierce Pharma.
Such trials produce “sensitive and confidential data” that may be difficult to keep secure if conducted at a CCP-sponsored site, the representatives said.
Furthermore, the quality of its data was questioned.
“There are also concerns regarding the reliability of clinical trial data produced overseas by PLA institutions,” the letter states.
‘The United States needs the FDA to take a greater role in protecting the country’s national security interests.’
Hundreds of thousands of Uighurs have been thrown into forced re-education camps, forcibly sterilised and their families separated in a Chinese crackdown on the minority, the report says. Pictured: Images of Uighurs in a camp in China, released in 2017
This comes amid an increased crackdown on Chinese biotech companies. The House Select Committee will vote in September on legislation to suspend contracts with Chinese biotech companies that the committee has identified as a potential risk to national security.
In addition to concerns about the data, representatives highlight potential human rights issues. A 2022 United Nations report accused China of detaining more than a million Uighurs and other Muslim minorities and sending them to forced labor camps.
International officials have alleged that the CCP has sanctioned forced sterilization, rape, torture, and genocide against Uyghurs in these camps. Most of these camps are located in the Sint-Kansas Uyghur Autonomous Region.
The letter states that some research has been conducted in the region, raising questions about whether participants participated voluntarily. The letter says: “Companies simply do not have the capacity to conduct due diligence to ensure that clinical trials conducted in XUAR are voluntary.”
The FDA has said it will respond to the lawmakers’ claims.
Eli Lilly told Axios that it “conducts clinical trials around the world to ensure diversity in research and increase access to its medicines. A spokesperson added that the company is committed to protecting intellectual property and vetting its research partners.”