Adds details on bill in paragraph 3-4
Jan 6 (Reuters) - China's WuXi Biologics 2269.HK said on Monday it will sell its vaccine facility in Ireland to U.S. drugmaker Merck & Co MRK.N for about $500 million.
The Financial Times had reported in October that WuXi and WuXi AppTec 603259.SS are planning to sell some of their operations, ahead of looming U.S. legislation that would restrict their business in the United States.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill called the Biosecure Act in September that would prohibit federal contracts with targeted firms and those that do business with them.
The legislation must pass the U.S. Senate before it can be sent to the president to be signed into law.
The bill is designed to keep Americans' personal health and genetic information from foreign adversaries and to push local pharmaceutical and biotech companies to reduce their reliance on China for everything from drug ingredient manufacturing to early research.
WuXi AppTec had said in December its units had signed a deal with U.S.-based private equity firm Altaris LLC for the sale of its cell and gene therapy manufacturing unit, WuXi Advanced Therapies, for an undisclosed sum.
(Reporting by Sneha S K; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)
((Sneha.SK@thomsonreuters.com;))
Comments