WASHINGTON DC (October 31, 2019) — Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles "Chuck" Grassley (R-IA) and Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) wrote to Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Seema Verma seeking an update on the status of a congressionally-mandated report which requires CMS to detail the circumstances in which CMS may be funding entities that process Americans’ genome or exome data in China or Russia.
Earlier this year, Sens Grassley and Rubio urged the HHS Acting Inspector General to examine potential payments made to US entities with partnerships to genomics companies affiliated with the Chinese government, including WuXi and BGI. Both WuXi and BGI have publicly touted their partnerships with the Chinese telecom company Huawei, a state-directed actor allegedly used by the Chinese government and Communist Party to undermine US companies and steal intellectual property and trade secrets. The FBI has identified national-security risks related to sharing genomic data, and recognizes China as a country that is a primary source of those risks.
In today’s letter, the senators expressed concern that CMS may “[B]e providing payments for genetic testing or analysis to US entities that have domestic partnerships with WuXi, BGI, and other genomics companies with ties to the Chinese government.” The letter also requests that CMS expand the scope of its report to include payments for genome or exome analysis to domestic Medicare and Medicaid providers that have partnerships with Chinese genomics companies.
The full text of the letter.
