FRANKFURT (Reuters) – German laboratory operator Eluthia GmbH said on Monday it would suspend the use of Chinese gene company BGI Group’s prenatal blood test for pregnant women while it looks into potential measures to protect its customers’ data privacy.
“Eluthia will suspend the mediation of tests to the BGI laboratory on a preliminary basis to clarify published claims and to consider potential further measures for patient protection,” the company said in a statement.
A Reuters review of scientific papers and company statements, published last week, found that BGI developed prenatal tests in collaboration with the Chinese military and is using them to collect genetic data from millions of women for sweeping research on the traits of populations.
Eluthia, which offers diagnostic blood tests of possible genetic abnormalities in foetuses, added that under its current contracts, it could not ask its German customers to agree to a use of their data or blood samples for research purposes.
(Reporting by Ludwig Burger; Editing by Kirsti Knolle)
