Asia Tech Wire (May 13) -- Chinese biotech company BGI Genomics Co Ltd (300676.SZ) recently said that the latest U.S. biosafety bill will have little impact on it.

The U.S. Congress released a revised version of a biosafety bill on Friday, and the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability is due to discuss and vote on the bill next Wednesday.

The revised bill would restrict U.S. entities from doing business with certain Chinese biotech companies and explicitly require U.S. companies to end their cooperation with those companies by January 2032.

Remarkably, the new version of the bill explicitly adds WuXi Biologics (Cayman) Inc (2269.HK) to the list of companies that it plans to ban, in addition to the previously mentioned BGI Genomics, WuXi AppTec Co Ltd (2359.HK) and their subsidiaries.

In response, WuXi AppTec said Friday, "The draft has not yet entered into force for enactment, and the legislative process is still subject to a number of steps, and the contents of the draft are subject to further review and possible changes."

"The company will continue to assess the potential impact of the bill," it said.

BGI Genomics told Chinese media it had noted changes in the content of the U.S. House of Representatives' biosafety bill (H.R. 8333), "because the company's revenue in the U.S. accounts for a very low percentage of the total revenue, so the bill will have very little impact on the company."

The company said that its business in the U.S. is mainly scientific research services, and its cooperation is with U.S. private organizations, colleges and universities, private enterprises, etc., and it does not have a close connection with the U.S. pharmaceutical industry.