From specialreports: As the coronavirus pandemic has grown, a Chinese company that studies human genomes and collects data on these genetic blueprints built 58 labs in 18 countries via KirstyLNeedham
FILE PHOTO: Scientists work with samples taken for testing for the coronavirus disease in the"Huo-Yan" National Laboratory for Molecular Detection of Infectious Agents in Belgrade, Serbia May 12, 2020. REUTERS/Marko Djurica
As BGI’s foothold in the gene-sequencing industry grows, a senior U.S. administration official told Reuters on condition of anonymity, so does the risk China could harvest genetic information from populations around the world. China’s foreign ministry said in a statement the country has been open, transparent and responsible in “sharing information and experience with the international community, providing supplies to relevant countries” including COVID-19 test kits and protective equipment, and helping countries improve epidemic control.
Sharing data is essential for medical research. But in the case of genetic data, officials and scientists say the risks are that it could be weaponized. Genetic information, including family medical history, “is of enormous value and can be exploited by foreign regimes for a range of security and economic purposes,” Bill Evanina, director of the NCSC, told Reuters in response to questions about Chinese genomic companies.
The week after that first test, BGI took swabs from another three patients at the hospital who had been to the local seafood market, according to a paper published by Chinese scientists in The Lancet on Jan. 29. BGI sequenced these samples. Besides donations, BGI has reported lab deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars. As technicians in white protective suits build Fire Eye labs in countries from Australia to Saudi Arabia, BGI Genomics, a listed subsidiary of the group, said last month demand would help boost profits by 700% for the first half of the year to more than $218 million.
Rather than seek one-drug-suits-all treatments, precision medicine focuses on how different people’s genes interact with their environment to help predict their risk of disease, or their response to medications. Two years after that, Beijing said in a State Council plan for the bio-industry that it wanted China to develop gene sequencing technology. In 2013, BGI succeeded in buying Illumina’s largest competitor, California-based Complete Genomics, for $118 million. That is now the U.S. research arm of the Chinese group. BGI Group launched its own sequencing equipment in 2015; the group floated BGI Genomics in 2017.
Seeking the injunction, Illumina’s lawyers told the court: “BGI plans extreme price cutting and ambitious sales directly against Illumina.” For BGI, sequencers offer more than money. It has said they will also help it study the virus in large populations. Prime Minister Ana Brnabic told an opening ceremony that after the pandemic, “We will have the most modern lab, which will enable us to start talking with BGI on how to build the most advanced institute for precision medicine and genetics in this region.”
Researchers globally are sharing virus data, but BGI has also set up its own sharing platform, the “Global Initiative on Open-source Genomics” for the new coronavirus. BGI told Reuters it had received no patient samples under this new programme - samples have been sequenced in local facilities.
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