(Yicai) May 17 -- US legislation that would prohibit federal agencies from doing business with BGI Group, Wuxi AppTec and other Chinese biotech firms on national security grounds would hamper competition and bolster market monopoly in the area of genome sequencing, BGI said.

The Biosecure Act “will limit competition and strengthen the market monopoly in the important field of human genome sequencing by using the legislative process to pick winners and losers,” Shenzhen-based BGI said in response to a US House of Representatives panel voting to advance the bill.

BGI supports the bill's goal of protecting US citizens' personal data, the life sciences company said on its website yesterday, reiterating a statement made in January. But driving the firm out of the United States will not achieve this goal, since BGI does not have access to these data, it added.

The US House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Accountability voted on May 15 to advance the Biosecure Act, which would restrict some researchers and laboratories in the US from accessing BGI's services, the firm noted. The bill also sets 2032 as a deadline for US drug and biotech firms to break ties with a handful of Chinese "biotechnology companies of concern.”

“As public records show, this bill has been advocated by a US company to eliminate competition and strengthen its monopoly,” BGI pointed out. “BGI is disappointed to see the US legislative process being abused by the company, which the US government itself has accused of holding an unlawful monopoly.”

BGI did not disclose the name of this US company, but it was likely referring to Illumina, a global leader in gene-sequencing and chip technology.

Since 2019, Illumina and its units have filed several patent and trademark infringement lawsuits outside China against BGI's unit MGI Tech and its subsidiaries, distributors, and customers. MGI Tech and its affiliates had settled all pending litigations with Illumina in the US as of July 2022.

Illumina paid USD325 million in compensation to MGI Tech's unit Complete Genomics to resolve a legal obstacle for the parent company to enter the US market.

MGI Tech, which focuses on researching and developing products such as gene sequencers and laboratory automation, is the bill's main target. Its revenue reached CNY2.9 billion (USD401.3 million) last year, with its income in the US surging 160 percent to CNY159 million (USD22 million) from a year earlier.

Shares of MGI Tech [SHA: 688114] ended 1.7 percent lower at CNY55.74 (USD7.71) apiece in Shanghai today. BGI Genomics [SHE: 300676], BGI's gene-sequencing unit, rose 0.9 percent to CNY41.30 in Shenzhen.

Editor: Martin Kadiev