Western pharmaceutical companies are in talks with alternative suppliers in response to draft US legislation seeking to restrict an important Chinese drug developer and manufacturer over national security concerns. The Biosecure Act would prohibit US companies receiving federal grant money from working with four Chinese biotech companies, including WuXi AppTec and its sister company WuXi Biologics, which produce active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) for hundreds of US and European drugmakers.

Companies, including US-based Eli Lilly, Vertex Pharmaceuticals and BeiGene in Switzerland, have been talking with rival contract manufacturers to diversify production away from WuXi companies, according to several people familiar with discussions.

“Everyone is reaching out to alternative [contract development manufacturing organisations] right now,” said an executive at a US-based drug outsourcer, which competes with WuXi. “The companies’ management teams have an obligation to ask if the Biosecure Act gets approved what is their plan B?”