Hong Kong financial news site AAStocks recently reported that the official website of the Director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) has “adopted measures to enhance the security of NIH controlled-access data,” and has prohibited institutions in China (including Hong Kong and Macau), Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba and Venezuela from accessing NIH controlled data storage starting April 4th. This news resulted in a significant decline in stocks prices for Chinese pharmaceutical companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
The newly-restricted data include the human genotype-phenotype database platform dbGaP as well as the cloud research platform AnVIL, which is used for large-scale gene data analysis. These platforms host the world’s richest human genome and phenotypic information and disease research data, AAStocks reported. “Global researchers have been highly dependent on these databases for a long time.” These measures are in line with the provisions of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Executive Order No. 14117 and 28 CFR Part 202 “Preventing access to sensitive personal data and government-related data from the U.S.”
Source: AAStocks, April 6, 2025
https://www.aastocks.com/sc/stocks/analysis/stock-aafn-con/02269/AAFN/NOW.1431900/hk-stock-news