SYDNEY/SHANGHAI, June 6 (Reuters) - Employees of

drugmaker WuXi AppTec, under U.S. scrutiny for its links to the

Chinese military, co-invented altitude sickness treatments with

People's Liberation Army (PLA) scientists, according to public

patent records and science papers reviewed by Reuters.

The news agency identified 10 patent filings that list six

of WuXi AppTec's staff as co-inventors of altitude sickness

drugs with six scientists from the PLA General Hospital in

Beijing - China's top military medical school and research

centre. The filings, which Reuters is reporting for the first

time, were made in the U.S., Europe and China between 2018 and

2023.

Treatments for such illnesses are a top priority for the PLA,

which fought with India - an increasingly important U.S.

security partner - as recently as 2022 on their Himalayan

frontier. The PLA has said high altitude disease, which include

disorientation as well as fatal pulmonary and cerebral edema, is

the major cause of reduced combat effectiveness to Chinese

soldiers in such areas and can influence the results of war.

The drug development ties go beyond the links between WuXi

AppTec and the PLA that have been publicly

alleged by a U.S. congressional committee.

The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party

has accused the Shanghai-headquartered company, which reported

U.S. sales of about $3.6 billion last year, of being a threat to

Washington's national security interests.

WuXi AppTec, which denies allegations that it is a threat to

U.S. national security, said in a statement to Reuters that it

"did not collaborate with PLA General Hospital or any other

PLA-related entity in the performance of this work" and that it

has "no special ties" to China's military.

It said its employees were listed in the patent documents

because they had earlier "invented compounds related to

hypertension treatment" while doing research for a client,

Shijiazhuang Sagacity New Drug Development.

Sagacity included the compounds "in a subsequent project

that we had no knowledge of and did not involve our company or

employees," WuXi AppTec said.

Sagacity, whose founder was the legal representative of a

company acquired by WuXi AppTec's parent in 2016, told Reuters

it is independent of WuXi AppTec but cooperates with it on

certain services. It did not respond to questions about the

patent's inventors.

China's defence ministry did not respond to a request for

comment on the PLA's relationship with WuXi AppTec.

PLA General Hospital senior official Kunlun He, lead author

of the studies behind the patented treatments and a co-inventor,

did not return an email seeking comment.

PATENT TRAIL

Reuters found two U.S. Patent and Trademark Office documents

dated March 2021 that show the six WuXi AppTec employees signed

over rights to the patents to Sagacity and PLA General Hospital.

Asked about the documents, WuXi AppTec said that it was

"standard patent application practice" to sign over the rights

to the applicants and that neither the company nor the six

employees owned those patents.

In a June 2022 study related to altitude sickness

treatments, He, the scientist who led PLA General Hospital's

altitude research efforts, thanked WuXi AppTec's team for

"helpful discussions regarding initiating and promoting" a

Beijing-funded high-level defence science project.

U.S. Republican lawmaker John Moolenaar, who chairs the

congressional committee, said that Reuters' findings "only adds

to the urgent need for Congress" to pass proposed legislation

that would restrict U.S. agencies and firms from cooperating

with some biotech companies, including WuXi AppTec.

"People forget that public health really for the most part has

been run by the PLA," said Anna Puglisi, a former U.S.

counterintelligence officer focused on biotechnology and China,

who reviewed Reuters' findings.

China's foreign ministry said in a statement responding to

Reuters' questions that many well-known U.S. companies also have

ties with the U.S. military.

It said that Washington should "stop overstretching the

concept of national security" and "stop politicizing,

instrumentalizing and weaponizing tech and trade issues".

MILITARY RESEARCHERS

Reuters also identified seven people listed in research

documents or science seminar documents as graduate students or

researchers at Shanghai's Navy Medical University while they

were WuXi AppTec employees.

Sheng Chunquan, a four-star military officer who heads the

university's pharmacy school, wrote in a 2021 article in China's

Journal of Pharmaceutical Practice and Service that it trained

"military pharmacy" researchers under a plan created by the

Communist Party's top military decision-making body.

Sheng, whose drug development work was previously recognised

with a WuXi AppTec prize, said in a 2016 interview - recently

deleted from the company's social media account - that

cooperation between the firm and the university would "greatly

promote the process of new drug R&D and launches."

University officials did not respond to emails and a fax

seeking comment.

A Reuters review of over a dozen science papers found that

at least three Navy Medical University graduate students hired

by WuXi AppTec in Shanghai during the same period also worked on

projects related to pain treatments and an antibiotic for WuXi

AppTec clients from the U.S., Europe and Canada, including

Novartis.

A Novartis spokeswoman told Reuters the Swiss company would

not disclose details of its collaboration with third parties but

that it is "committed to conducting our business in a fully

compliant manner."

WuXi AppTec said all military medical universities in China

enrol civilian students. It also said its internal security

controls prevent access by unauthorized employees to labs and

files and that all employees signed agreements that "prohibit

them from sharing company data or intellectual property with

third parties, including for the purpose of academic research

and/or graduate studies."

Puglisi, now adjunct faculty at Georgetown University, said

Chinese companies were obliged by a 2017 law - which states they

must "assist and cooperate with the state intelligence work" -

to share information upon the request of authorities "regardless

of who owns that IP."

WuXi AppTec said the law was "subject to substantive and

procedural restrictions" and Beijing has not asked it to

"provide proprietary data or confidential information in

connection with this law."

($1 = 7.2330 Chinese yuan)