Biotech leaders speak out against dismissals of Chinese scientists
Fiercebiotech | August 22, 2019
Chinas theft of intellectual property from the U.S. and other countries isnt new remember the Genentech scientists and the GlaxoSmithKline researchers who funneled trade secrets to associates in China and Taiwan? But a government crackdown to counter theft has highlighted another threat, one that could damage U.S. leadership in the life sciences. Recently, some scientists from China, or American-born of Chinese heritage, have been summarily dismissed from their university positions, creating a climate of fear and uncertainty in our biomedical communities, wrote Jeremy Levin, Ovid Therapeutic CEO and Chairman of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, along with Alnylam CEO John Maraganore, Decibel CEO Steven Holtzman, and Acorda CEO Ron Cohen in a letter that was signed by more than 150 industry leaders. The letter comes one year after the National Institutes of Health started a campaign to enforce rules requiring that scientists receiving its grants report their foreign ties. Since August 2018, the agency has sent about 180 letters to more than 60 institutions in the U.S., flagging individual scientists that it believes have broken those rules, according to a report in Science.