US lawmakers probe Merck, AbbVie China trials over military risk

A bipartisan bloc of House lawmakers has opened a national security probe into Merck and AbbVie over clinical trials in China, demanding details by July 17 on due diligence, data protection, and the standards used at trial sites there. The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, led by Representative John Moolenaar of Michigan, is pressing for answers on work tied to Xinjiang and military hospitals, and wants to know whether patients, data, or research know-how were exposed to strategic risk.

In summer 2024, lawmakers sought Food and Drug Administration information on clinical trials at Chinese military hospitals, FDA site visits in the People’s Republic of China, and trials in Xinjiang. An earlier committee letter said U.S. biopharmaceutical companies conducted clinical trials with China’s military organizations and PLA-linked medical centers for more than a decade.

On May 21, 2026, Moolenaar urged Treasury Secretary Howard Lutnick to add biotechnology as a prohibited technology under the COINS Act of 2025. In June, the committee said roughly 90% of drugs Americans take every day run through Chinese-controlled inputs and that China is close to outpacing the United States in clinical trials. Georgetown University research found that by 2024, the U.S. share of early-stage drug development programs had fallen to just over 37% from 48% in 2015, while China’s had risen to just over 32% from 8%.

FDA guidance requires informed consent in clinical research, and the committee has zeroed in on site practices and consent standards in China. The committee's letters call Xinjiang the epicenter of Beijing’s repression of Uyghurs and other minorities, and flag operations linked to military facilities as especially sensitive. China’s embassy in Washington dismissed the committee’s actions as not credible and said China opposes efforts to politicize trade and technology issues.

Merck says patient safety and ethical integrity remain top priorities and that it applies the same ethical standards to trials in all countries. The company’s May 2026 ethics statement lists ICH-GCP, the Belmont Report, CIOMS guidelines, PhRMA principles, local rules, and the Declaration of Helsinki. Merck’s 2025 annual report recorded a sharp contraction in its China business in 2025 because of lower sales of Gardasil and Gardasil 9. AbbVie declined to comment. China’s new Good Clinical Practice for Drugs guideline, released in June 2026, is set to take effect on September 1.