UVL Addition to Have 'No Impact' on Business, Chinese Biotech Company Says

WuXi Biologics, one of China’s largest biotechnology companies, said it complies with all U.S. export control regulations despite the Commerce Department’s decision to add two of its subsidiaries to the Unverified List this week (see 2202070012). The company said it has been approved to import U.S. export-controlled “hardware controllers for bioreactors and certain hollow fiber filters” for 10 years. “We do not re-export or resell these items to any other entity,” WuXi said Feb. 8 in a statement.

The company also said Commerce hasn’t conducted end-use checks on it for two years due to complications caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. “We welcome inspection at any time for the clearance and removal from such list,” WuXi said. “We are also pursuing interim measures to remove these subsidiaries from the list prior to inspection.” Companies on the UVL List can’t benefit from license exceptions and face other regulatory hurdles, but they aren’t subject to export bans.

WuXi said it expects the additions to the UVL -- which now include its subsidiaries in ​​Shanghai and Wuxi, a city in China’s southern Jiangsu province -- to have “no impact on our business” and “very minimal impact on our imports” since “no such equipment is required after facility construction in Shanghai and Wuxi.”