WuXi AppTec and WuXi Biologics are reportedly looking to sell part of their operations that have struggled because of proposed federal legislation that’s targeting the companies on national security grounds.
On Thursday, the Financial Times said that WuXi AppTec wants to sell its business WuXi Advanced Therapies, which operates labs and manufacturing facilities in Philadelphia. Companies like Kyverna Therapeutics rely on the WuXi unit to manufacture cell and gene therapies, according to regulatory filings.
In an interim financial report in July, WuXi AppTec partly blamed WuXi Advanced Therapies’ falling revenue on “insufficient new business wins due to the proposed US legislation,” a reference to the proposed Biosecure Act that bans US drugmakers from contracting with the WuXi companies after 2032.
In a statement, WuXi AppTec said it’s “assessing options for continuing WuXi Advanced Therapies’ operations in line with our priorities: our employees and the patients who need essential, time-critical and life-saving treatments.”
Likewise, WuXi Biologics is gauging buyer interest in some of its European production facilities, the result of business drying up due to the legislation, the Financial Times reported. (The Financial Times owns a majority stake in Endpoints News, but the two newsrooms operate independently.)
Last month, the head of the incubator Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives told some members of Congress that the Biosecure Act resulted in WuXi Biologics pausing work on a 190,000-square-foot biomanufacturing facility, Endpoints previously reported.
Despite financial pressures on both sides of the Atlantic, WuXi has looked to expand parts of its operations in Europe, where concerns raised by the bill appear to be less acute.
WuXi Biologics didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Last month, the US House of Representatives passed the Biosecure Act. The law would have to clear the Senate and be signed by President Joe Biden to become law.
This article was updated with a statement from WuXi AppTec.