STAT+: Congressional probe questions clinical trials run in China, citing Army involvement
A House committee is investigating whether brand drug companies are collaborating with the Chinese military when they run clinical trials in that country.
“For over a decade, it appears that U.S. biopharmaceutical companies conducted clinical trials with China’s military organizations, and specifically with medical centers and hospitals affiliated with the People’s Liberation Army’s,” according to an Aug. 19 letter that the House China committee sent to the Food and Drug Administration.
The bipartisan inquiry jeopardizes yet another aspect of drug development for which drugmakers increasingly rely on China, where it’s cheaper. However, the letter is focused on trials involving hospitals affiliated with the Chinese military and trials run in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, where the Chinese Communist Party has been accused of human rights abuses against Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities.
