China: Consultation opened on Implementation Rules for Human Genetic Resources Regulations

On 22 March 2022, the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China (MST) issued the “Implementation Rules for the Human Genetic Resources Regulation” and opened a public consultation until 21 April 2022. The rules specify that foreign organisations cannot collect, use or transfer data on Chinese Human Genetic Resources (HGR) by themselves, and have to cooperate with a Chinese Partner. Furthermore, the rules state that for HGR data to be transferred to foreign entities it has to pass a security review. The information subject to security review includes data on genetic families, regional particularities, genome sequencing of more than 500 individuals, or data that has the potential to affect public health.