The global pharmaceutical industry relies on ingredients made in China’s far-western Xinjiang region using Uyghur forced labor despite efforts to eliminate this risk from supply chains, according to a new report.

The report by the Center for Advanced Defense Studies, or C4ADS, says that even two U.S. government agencies — the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and U.S. Agency for International Development via its contractor Chemonics International — have not cut ties with Xinjiang-linked drug suppliers.

This is happening despite U.S. laws that require American companies to ensure there is no forced labor in their supply chains.

“Our findings indicate that international governments remain tied to the Uyghur region, especially in the pharmaceutical sector,” Mishel Kondi, author of the report, told Radio Free Asia.

The use of Uyghur forced labor is one of the repressive measures the Chinese Communist Party has taken in Xinjiang, where about 12 million Uyghurs live, and it is deeply entrenched in the region’s economy, the report says.

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