(Reuters) -China’s WuXi AppTec said on Tuesday its subsidiaries have signed an agreement with U.S. private equity firm Altaris LLC to sell its cell and gene therapy manufacturing unit WuXi Advanced Therapies for an undisclosed amount.
The company, along with other Chinese companies, was at the center of new U.S. laws aimed at restricting their operations in the United States over national security concerns.
The U.S. House of Representatives had passed a bill in September that would ban federal contracts with the targeted companies and companies that do business with them.
The bills are intended to keep Americans’ personal health and genetic information away from foreign adversaries and aim to push U.S. pharmaceutical and biotech companies to reduce their dependence on China for everything from manufacturing drug ingredients to early research.
WuXi said it would also sell Oxford Genetics, the UK operating entity of the WuXi ATU business, to Altaris LLC.
Altaris declined to comment beyond the details provided, while WuXi AppTec did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
(Reporting by Rajasik Mukherjee, additional reporting by Shivangi Lahiri in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)
