|
 BGI Group, described in one 2015 study as "Goliath" in the
fast-growing field of genomics research, is using an opening created
by the pandemic to expand its footprint globally. In the past six
months, it says it has sold 35 million rapid COVID-19 testing kits
to 180 countries and built 58 labs in 18 countries. Some of the
equipment has been donated by BGI's philanthropic arm, promoted by
China's embassies in an extension of China's virus diplomacy.
But as well as test kits, the company is distributing
gene-sequencing technology that U.S. security officials say could
threaten national security. This is a sensitive area globally.
Sequencers are used to analyse genetic material, and can unlock
powerful personal information.
In science journals and online, BGI is calling on international
health researchers to send in virus data generated on its equipment,
as well as patient samples that have tested positive for COVID-19,
to be shared publicly via China's government-funded National
GeneBank.
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.
Underpinning BGI's global expansion are the Shenzhen-based company's
links to the Chinese government, which include its role as operator
of China's national genetic database and its research in
government-affiliated key laboratories. BGI, which says in stock
market filings it aims to help the ruling Communist Party achieve
its goal to "seize the commanding heights of international
biotechnology competition," is coming under increasing scrutiny in
an escalating Cold War between Washington and Beijing, Reuters
found.
Reuters found no evidence that BGI is violating patient privacy
protections where these apply. Responding to questions from the news
agency, BGI said it is not owned by the Chinese government.
"Under the current political climate, the fear raised about the use
of BGI's technology is unfounded and misleading," BGI said in a
statement to Reuters. "BGI's mission is, and has always been, using
genomics to benefit people's health and wellbeing."
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.
The extent of BGI's endeavours to dominate an industry with
geostrategic value, as well as of its efforts to gather genetic data
from around the world, was pieced together by Reuters from public
documents and dozens of interviews with scientists, researchers and
health officials.
Some U.S. officials warn of a dual risk to national security from
BGI: Sensitive genetic information about U.S. citizens may fall into
foreign hands, and American companies stand to lose their innovative
edge in the field of genomics to Chinese firms.
Earlier this year, the U.S. National Counterintelligence and
Security Center (NCSC) published practical tips for health services
to avoid "potential threats posed by foreign powers" in connection
with COVID-19 tests. Other officials draw parallels between BGI and
Huawei Technologies Co., the Chinese telecommunications titan whose
5G technology the United States says could be used to capture
personal data that Beijing could exploit. Huawei has said it would
refuse to cooperate with spying.
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.
Individuals can be identified by a portion of their DNA, and some
researchers have found genetic links with behaviours such as
depressive disorder. A hostile actor could use such data to target
individuals for surveillance, extortion or manipulation, according
to a comprehensive report prepared for the U.S. Office of the
Director of National Intelligence by science and medical experts in
January, which added that such associations are not yet well
understood.
Knowledge of the genetic makeup of national decision-makers or the
military, and their propensity to act in certain ways, could be used
by adversarial intelligence agencies as a mechanism of influence,
said the report, "Safeguarding the Bioeconomy," from the National
Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. Genetic data could
reveal a U.S. vulnerability to specific diseases, it added.
As companies race to develop and patent biological drugs for the
global market, the ethnic diversity of the U.S. population makes
U.S. genomic data more valuable than data from countries with
homogeneous populations, the report said. That's because the more
varied the data, the bigger the advantage in identifying genetic
disease. The report raised the possibility BGI could amass DNA
sequence information from U.S. genetic samples that would give it an
"asymmetrical" advantage over U.S. firms.
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.
BGI and Huawei have said they work together. In a video that is no
longer available on Huawei's site, a BGI executive said it processes
"staggering volumes of data" from its gene sequencers, stored on
Huawei's high-powered systems. In response to questions from Reuters
about whether this information could be shared with China's
government, Huawei said only users of its technology can define who
to share data with. "Huawei's Cloud technology and cloud computing
services are secure and compliant with international security
standards," it said, adding it complies with all laws.
BGI said it does not have access to patient data from its diagnostic
tests.
The company said it is conducting scientific research on the
genomes, or genetic blueprints, of the virus and patients with
COVID-19. But it said this research is separate from the tests it
provides to other nations to diagnose COVID-19.
Asked about China's genomics ambitions, a U.S. State Department
spokesman said: "We believe countries need to be able to trust that
vendors will not threaten national security, privacy or intellectual
property. Trust cannot exist where a company is subject to an
authoritarian government, like the People's Republic of China, that
lacks prohibitions on the misuse of data."
FROM "WHO1" TO FIRE EYE
BGI was involved in China's response to the coronavirus from the
start. Its scientists were among teams that sequenced the virus
genome and shared that information in January.
On Dec. 26, BGI collected and tested a throat swab from a
44-year-old man who was a patient in the military hospital in Wuhan,
according to a record of the sequence that was shared with other
researchers on a global database. The World Health Organisation
(WHO) learned of cases of pneumonia of an unknown cause in Wuhan on
Dec. 31; the blueprint of the patient's virus was named WHO1.
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.
By month's end, the company had designed an automated laboratory for
the Wuhan government to massively increase testing. BGI called the
design "Fire Eye," after the ability of China's fabled Monkey King
to see disguised threats.
The labs were replicated in China, and the Mammoth Foundation – a
charity established a few months earlier by BGI – started donating
tests and laboratories worldwide. By mid-year, BGI's COVID-19 lab
equipment was installed in at least 10 countries thanks to donations
by the charity, company statements and local news reports show.
China's government helped coordinate some of BGI's deals. The
Solomon Islands said it had received a $300,000 cheque from the
Chinese embassy, which advised the island nation to buy tests and
lab equipment from BGI. China's foreign ministry said China has done
its best to ensure safety and reliability of medical supplies.
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.
POWERFUL INFORMATION
There are two main aspects to BGI's COVID-19 programme.
First, diagnostic test kits, which come with high-speed processing
robots to handle large volumes, work by detecting the genetic
material of the virus in a patient's sample to tell if a person has
been infected. BGI says these tests do not give access to patient
data.
The second part, which the company offers as an add-on in its
marketing materials, is gene-sequencing equipment.
In the pandemic, researchers around the globe are using sequencers
to track mutations in the virus, see which mutation is spreading,
and choose strains or samples to work with for vaccine development.
Underpinning demand for DNA sequencers is also their role driving a
lucrative medical field known as precision or personal medicine.
[to top of second column] |
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.
In July, BGI Genomics, BGI's listed subsidiary on the Shenzhen stock
exchange filed for a $293 million capital hike, telling investors in
the filing their support would help it collect as much patient data
as possible, "on the human body, genome, people's living habits and
environment, so we can understand more, and diagnose in a more
precise way."
The company also says it plans to promote the Fire Eye labs it rolls
out for COVID-19 for precision medicine after the pandemic.
FROM CUSTOMER TO RIVAL
BGI was set up by four scientists in 1999 as a non-profit research
body called the Beijing Genomics Institute, to enable China to join
a global project to map the human genome. Since 2016, its
headquarters have housed and operated the government-funded China
National GeneBank, a biorepository of 20 million plant, animal and
human genetic samples.
In 2010, BGI received a $1.5 billion loan from the state-run China
Development Bank, some of which it used to buy 128 sequencing
machines from an American firm, San Diego-based Illumina Inc.
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.
This year, BGI Genomics told investors that it had cost $95 million
to sequence a whole human genome in 2001. By 2014, Illumina had
announced it reduced the cost to below $1,000. Now BGI could do it
for $600.
In May, MGI Tech, the BGI subsidiary that makes DNA sequencers,
raised $1 billion in venture capital.
But after BGI indicated it would launch its sequencers in the United
States, it ran into a challenge - an accusation of intellectual
property violations from Illumina. In June, a U.S. court issued a
preliminary injunction banning the sale, distribution or promotion
of BGI's materials and equipment, pending a trial to decide if the
technology was copied from Illumina.
Seeking the injunction, Illumina's lawyers told the court: "BGI
plans extreme price cutting and ambitious sales directly against
Illumina."
BGI declined to comment on the case. In court papers, BGI denied
infringing Illumina's patents and asked that parts of the injunction
be put on hold while it appealed the ruling. Illumina told Reuters
COVID-19 will boost sequencer demand.
"MORE VALUABLE THAN GOLD"
With a price tag of between $20,000 for a portable model and $1
million for a powerful machine, gene sequencers are an important
part of a country's pandemic armoury.
Even before the new coronavirus, in October 2019, Ethiopia's
government said it would establish a genomics lab with equipment
donated by BGI. Months later, Illumina donated sequencers to 10
African nations to help monitor the virus, the U.S. company said.
At least five countries worldwide have received BGI's sequencers
with the Fire Eye labs, according to statements the countries or BGI
have released. In many cases BGI does not own or operate the Fire
Eye laboratories, but simply provides the equipment, the company
told Reuters.
For BGI, sequencers offer more than money. It has said they will
also help it study the virus in large populations.
One recipient of BGI sequencing equipment is Serbia, the Balkan
country where Beijing has invested heavily as part of its One Belt,
One Road initiative to open trade links for Chinese companies. Two
labs have opened there. Both were donated by Chinese companies,
Beijing and Belgrade said.
After the first lab opened, coordinator Jelena Begovic told Reuters
in May that DNA sequencers help researchers by linking genetic
information on the virus with genetic information on the patient. In
future, she said, the labs would underpin cooperation with BGI.
"Information is nowadays sometimes more valuable than gold," she
said. "In that sense, this is also a source of information for them
regarding this region."
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."
Sweden, too, has received sequencing equipment from BGI. The
Karolinska Institute, a medical university in Stockholm, hopes to
use it to identify a human genotype that is more susceptible to the
disease, microbiology professor Lars Engstrand said in a
presentation on BGI's website.
Asked by Reuters about the risk Swedish genomic data may be
collected by the Chinese government, Engstrand said this was "a very
relevant question" and the institute's IT security department had
scrutinised its collaboration with BGI.
"There will be no sequence information sent to any other servers or
computers outside our institute," said Engstrand, who heads the
institute's Center for Translational Microbiome Research, in an
email. "No cloud solution will be used for these sensitive data."
He was unsure if the institute would go ahead with sequencing human
genomes, he added.
"CONSIDERABLE SUPPORT"
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.
On a website together with the China National GeneBank,
giogs.genomics.cn, it invites international scientists to send in
virus information including patient age, gender and location,
collected in accordance with local regulations.
"You will be asked to share virus genome data to the public via (the
National GeneBank) in the first instance," the site says.
In exchange, the site offers sequencing services and "considerable
support" for the cost of kits and reagents.
BGI told Reuters it had received no patient samples under this new
programme - samples have been sequenced in local facilities.
It said its goal is to "develop more high-quality genome data of
(the) virus with BGI's sequencing solution." It said it wants to
facilitate the rapid and open sharing of genome data to support
research on the virus.
Besides the National GeneBank, BGI's headquarters also house at
least four government-designated "Key Laboratories" for genomic
research, which are also government-funded. BGI said this funding is
used for research, not operations.
One of the labs supported a study by a dozen BGI researchers who
sequenced the genomes of more than 300 COVID-19 patients in a
Shenzhen hospital, according to a paper they shared on MedRvix, a
website for pre-published scientific papers.
"We and the others are continuing to recruit patients and data in
China and around the world to understand the host genetic background
underlying the varying clinical outcome of the patients," the
researchers wrote.
As rapid COVID-19 tests are adopted globally, the researchers added,
it will be important to study patients who don't show symptoms. The
study's lead author didn't respond to questions from Reuters.
SECURITY APPARATUS
BGI's pandemic push comes as tensions between China and the United
States are mounting, including over China's genetic programme.
Two BGI subsidiaries were blacklisted by the U.S. Commerce
Department last month for China's alleged human rights violations.
Washington alleged BGI is involved in conducting genetic analysis of
Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang in western China, where U.N. experts and
activists say Muslims were held in detention centres.
BGI said in a statement it "does not condone and would never be
involved in any human-rights abuses." Chinese officials say the
camps are educational and vocational institutions and deny they
violate the human rights of the detainees.
China's security apparatus is a BGI customer. Another BGI
subsidiary, Forensic Genomics International, says on its website it
works with China's Public Security Bureau. It had multiple contracts
with the police to collect male DNA samples, as well as samples from
some newborn babies, a survey this year by the Australian Strategic
Policy Institute found.
BGI said the forensics subsidiary complied with scientific ethics
and the law. The foreign ministry declined to comment.
(Needham reported from Sydney; Additional reporting by Daniel Levine
in San Francisco, Ivana Sekularac in Belgrade, Tova Cohen in Tel
Aviv, Joel Schectman and David Brunnstrom in Washington, D.C., Cate
Cadell in Beijing, Steve Stecklow in London, David Kirton in
Shenzhen; Edited by Sara Ledwith)
[© 2020 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2020 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content. |
