WuXi AppTec

WuXi PharmaTech was founded in December 2000 in Shanghai by organic chemist Ge Li.^[1][2]

The company opened chemistry facilities in Tianjin in 2007. In 2008, WuXi PharmaTech acquired AppTec Laboratory Services Inc., a US-based company founded in 2001 with expertise in medical-device and biologics testing and with facilities in St. Paul, MN; Philadelphia, PA; and Atlanta, GA. In the same year the company was renamed WuXi AppTec.^[3][4] WuXi AppTec opened a toxicology facility in Suzhou in 2009.^[5]

WuXi AppTec's subsidiary, WuXi STA, opened a large-scale manufacturing facility in Jinshan in 2010. The company began a biologics discovery, development, and manufacturing operation in Shanghai and Wuxi City in 2011. At the same year, WuXi AppTec acquired MedKey, a China-based clinical research company,^[6] and Abgent, a San Diego company and one of the world's largest manufacturers of antibodies for biological research and drug discovery.^[7] In 2012, WuXi AppTec opened a chemistry facility in Wuhan and a GMP biologics drug-substance facility in Wuxi City. That year WuXi AppTec also entered into a joint venture with MedImmune, the biologics arm of AstraZeneca, to co-develop MEDI5117, an anti-IL6 antibody for rheumatoid arthritis for the Chinese market.^[8] In 2013, WuXi AppTec formed a joint venture with the global clinical contract research organization PRA International (now called PRA Health Sciences) to build a clinical research business in China.^[9]

In 2014, WuXi AppTec opened a new biologics biosafety testing facility in Suzhou. In the same year, WuXi AppTec acquired XenoBiotic Laboratories, Inc. (XBL), a contract research organization with 27 years of operation that provides bioanalytical, drug metabolism, and pharmacokinetic services to the pharmaceutical, animal health, and agrochemical industries.^[10]

In 2015, the company launched the subsidiary WuXi NextCODE following the acquisition of NextCODE Health, a bioinformatics startup company which emerged from the Icelandic firm deCODE genetics in 2013.^[11]

In 2015, WuXi AppTec completed its merger with WuXi Merger Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of New WuXi Life Science Limited. As a result of the merger, New WuXi Life Science Limited acquired the company in a cash transaction valued at approximately US$3.3 billion.^[12] In 2016, WuXi STA opened a new campus in Changzhou^[13] and operations in San Diego. In the same year, WuXi AppTec acquired Crelux GmbH, a structure-based drug discovery provider based in Munich, Germany.^[14] In 2017, WuXi AppTec acquired HD Biosciences (HDB), a biology focused preclinical drug discovery contract research organization (CRO).^[15]

In January 2024, WuXi AppTec's share price fell on news that the United States Congress had introduced legislation to block any federal government contracts with the company due to national security concerns.^[16][17][18] The concerns stem from allegations, denied by the company, that it has worked closely with the People's Liberation Army (PLA) as a part of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s military-civil fusion strategy.^[19] Members of the United States House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party subsequently called for sanctions against WuXi AppTec.^[20] WuXi AppTec denied any affiliation with the CCP and PLA and launched a lobbying campaign in the US in response.^[21] According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, United States Department of State, and Director of National Intelligence, WuXi AppTec transferred US intellectual property to the PLA without consent.^[22]