WuXi AppTec will sell its Advanced Therapies unit to the US private equity firm Altaris for an undisclosed amount, a long-anticipated move after months of concern that Congress would pass legislation that would ban the Chinese contractor from working with Western biopharma companies.
Altaris will get WuXi’s US and UK cell and gene therapy business, with the deal expected to close in the first half of 2025. The business will then be renamed and headquartered in the US, Altaris
said Tuesday
.
WuXi AppTec said its other businesses remain unchanged, and CEO Edward Hu called the deal a “positive step forward” for the cell and gene therapy business,
according to a release
.
WuXi AppTec did not respond to questions about financial details of the transaction and Altaris declined to provide additional information.
Altaris manages about $10 billion in equity capital, including insurers, health tech companies and drug manufacturers. Earlier this year, the firm acquired Minaris Regenerative Medicine, another cell therapy-focused manufacturer that operates six facilities in the US, Germany and Japan.
WuXi’s Advanced Therapies unit operatives five facilities, including properties totaling 550,000 square feet in the Philadelphia Navy Yard and the manufacturing facilities it
acquired from UK-based Oxgene
in 2021. WuXi AppTec acknowledged earlier this year that it was looking at getting rid of the unit, and said in an
October earnings presentation
that it was “assessing options for continuing operations and avoiding impact on patients.”
The future of WuXi AppTec’s business, along with WuXi Biologics, has been in flux as the Biosecure Act built momentum over the course of the year. The legislation would have restricted US biotechs from working with Chinese manufacturing contractors, and two WuXi companies, including WuXi AppTec, were explicitly named in the bill text, along with others.
Underpinning the legislation were accusations that the Chinese contractors could not be trusted with companies’ data.
Reuters
reported in March that intelligence officials briefed lawmakers that WuXi AppTec was sharing US clients’ intellectual property with the Chinese government, which the company denied.
The company cited the legislation as one of the main reasons why nine-month sales of the Advanced Therapies unit were down 17% in 2024 compared to 2023, saying customers were reconsidering prospective work.
The House
passed the bill in September
but it stalled out in the Senate, and did not make the broader defense spending bill that was its most likely route to passage. The legislation was also not included in the end-of-year spending bill, leaving
its future in flux
as a new administration is set to take office.
But US-China tensions are expected to continue when President-elect Donald Trump takes office next year, and the legislation could be revived.
Editor’s note: This story was updated with a response from Altaris and corrected the name of the WuXi unit.