US pharmaceutical chiefs and scientists back Chinese researchers living in ‘climate of fear’
- ‘Recent actions’ by government agencies and universities prompt open letter of support from 150 industry leaders
- Chinese and Chinese-American scientists targets of suspicion and scrutiny
A group of around 150 prominent biomedical scientists and pharmaceutical industry leaders in the US has come out in opposition to “recent actions” by government agencies and universities against Chinese scientists working in the United States.
In a letter published on a bioengineering community page on the website of the journal Nature on Wednesday, the group called out university dismissals of Chinese and Chinese-American scientists, saying such actions created “a climate of fear and uncertainty” in the biomedical research community.
The statement comes as Chinese and Chinese-American scientists have increasingly found themselves under scrutiny and targets of suspicion in the ongoing US-China trade and technology war, with the United States accusing China of using stolen American intellectual property to fuel its own technological advance, an allegation that China denies.
Signatories to the letter published on Wednesday included prominent bioscientists and industry leaders, among them president and founding director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard Eric Lander; Harvard chemist David Liu; and James Audia, executive director of the Chicago Biomedical Consortium.
The letter was also signed by CEOs of New York Stock Exchange-listed pharmaceutical companies including BioMarin Pharmaceutical’s Jean-Jacques Bienamie, Allergan’s Brent Saunders and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals’ John Maraganore.
