Fired Winnipeg lab scientist listed as co-inventor on two Chinese government patents
The high-profile scientist who was fired from Canada’s top infectious disease lab collaborated with Chinese government scientists on inventions registered in Beijing, but closely related to her federal job, intellectual property documents indicate.
© Provided by National Post Xiangguo Qiu's ouster from the National Microbiology Laboratory remains cloaked in mystery and has been the subject of ongoing debate in Parliament.
Xiangguo Qiu, who’s also under investigation by the RCMP, is listed as an inventor on two patents filed by official agencies in China in recent years.
Qiu was a long-time federal civil servant when the patents were registered in 2017 and 2019 for innovations related to the Ebola and Marburg viruses, key focuses of her work at Winnipeg ’s National Microbiology Laboratory.
Qiu’s ouster from the lab remains cloaked in mystery and has been the subject of ongoing debate in Parliament, as opposition parties try, largely in vain, to obtain information on why she and husband Keding Cheng — another scientist at the lab — were let go.
Qiu had extensive dealings with China and Chinese scientists in recent years, including repeated trips to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a “level-four” disease lab like Winnipeg’s.
One of the patents listing her as a co-inventor — with five other people — was filed with the Chinese National Intellectual Property Administration by the country’s National Institutes for Food and Drug Control. It describes an “inhibitor for Ebola virus.” Qiu won fame in Canada for helping develop a treatment for Ebola, though the Chinese drug seems different.
The other patent that includes Qiu and six collaborators as inventors was registered by the Inspection and Quarantine Technology Center of Fujian province. It’s for a “detection method,” or test, for Marburg, a hemorrhagic fever similar to Ebola.
Neither Chinese patent makes any mention of her Canadian government employer.
The federal Public Servants Inventions Act states that the federal government owns all inventions “made by a public servant that resulted from or is connected with his duties or employment.”
And the legislation says a government employee cannot file a patent outside the country without the minister’s permission.
Mark Johnson, a spokesman for the Public Health Agency of Canada, refused to comment on whether Qiu had obtained such permission.
Asked if the agency — which administers the lab — was even aware of the patents, he said, “We cannot comment on this matter.”
Qiu could not be reached about the issue, and did not respond to previous phone messages left by the Post.
Whatever the Canadian government’s involvement in its employee’s Chinese-government-owned innovations, the situation seems like a mess, said Mark Warner, a prominent trade lawyer and former legal director of the Ontario Research and Innovation Ministry.
“If her contract permitted it, that would be a scandal,” he said. “If the contract didn’t permit it and they ignored the contract, that would be a scandal. If the contract didn’t even turn its attention to this, that would be a scandal, too.”
© Provided by National Post Xiangguo Qiu's ouster from the National Microbiology Laboratory remains cloaked in mystery and has been the subject of ongoing debate in Parliament.Xiangguo Qiu, who’s also under investigation by the RCMP, is listed as an inventor on two patents filed by official agencies in China in recent years.
Qiu was a long-time federal civil servant when the patents were registered in 2017 and 2019 for innovations related to the Ebola and Marburg viruses, key focuses of her work at Winnipeg ’s National Microbiology Laboratory.
Qiu’s ouster from the lab remains cloaked in mystery and has been the subject of ongoing debate in Parliament, as opposition parties try, largely in vain, to obtain information on why she and husband Keding Cheng — another scientist at the lab — were let go.
Qiu had extensive dealings with China and Chinese scientists in recent years, including repeated trips to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a “level-four” disease lab like Winnipeg’s.
One of the patents listing her as a co-inventor — with five other people — was filed with the Chinese National Intellectual Property Administration by the country’s National Institutes for Food and Drug Control. It describes an “inhibitor for Ebola virus.” Qiu won fame in Canada for helping develop a treatment for Ebola, though the Chinese drug seems different.
The other patent that includes Qiu and six collaborators as inventors was registered by the Inspection and Quarantine Technology Center of Fujian province. It’s for a “detection method,” or test, for Marburg, a hemorrhagic fever similar to Ebola.
Neither Chinese patent makes any mention of her Canadian government employer.
The federal Public Servants Inventions Act states that the federal government owns all inventions “made by a public servant that resulted from or is connected with his duties or employment.”
And the legislation says a government employee cannot file a patent outside the country without the minister’s permission.
Mark Johnson, a spokesman for the Public Health Agency of Canada, refused to comment on whether Qiu had obtained such permission.
Asked if the agency — which administers the lab — was even aware of the patents, he said, “We cannot comment on this matter.”
Qiu could not be reached about the issue, and did not respond to previous phone messages left by the Post.
Whatever the Canadian government’s involvement in its employee’s Chinese-government-owned innovations, the situation seems like a mess, said Mark Warner, a prominent trade lawyer and former legal director of the Ontario Research and Innovation Ministry.
“If her contract permitted it, that would be a scandal,” he said. “If the contract didn’t permit it and they ignored the contract, that would be a scandal. If the contract didn’t even turn its attention to this, that would be a scandal, too.”
© Provided by National Post The National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg where scientists Xiangguo Qiu and Keding Cheng worked until they were escorted out in July 2019, and finally fired in January 2021.
It appears Qiu was either in violation of the inventions law or got permission from the minister, said Richard Gold, an intellectual property expert at McGill University.
Gold said he could only speculate on what happened but “this sounds very much like she did not get permission and that the government has a claim to the Chinese application.”
Canadian authorities have generally given short shrift to economic and national security issues when publicly funded researchers collaborate with foreign companies and governments, said Myra Tawfik, a University of Windsor professor specializing in intellectual property.
The case of Qiu’s patents, she said, “should be a cautionary tale.”
China’s aggressive attempts to lure scientific talent from the West have become an increasing concern for security agencies, with some researchers in the U.S. actually charged criminally with failing to divulge their Chinese paid work.
In most cases, the scientists recruited by Beijing have been academics or private-sector researchers, not direct government employees.
Johnson said national microbiology lab workers must abide by the inventions legislation. But asked if the Public Health Agency was concerned about one of its employees working with the Chinese government in such a way, Johnson said “open science and collaboration” are core to its work.
“The NML has policies and processes that allow for scientific collaboration and these are reviewed periodically as part of the Science Excellence initiative to adapt them as needed,” he said.
Qiu immigrated from China in 1996 with medical and immunology degrees and worked at the NML since at least 2003. With colleagues there, she helped develop an Ebola treatment based on so-called “monoclonal antibodies,” which became part of a drug called Z-Mapp. For that work she was awarded the Governor General’s innovation award in 2018 — the year between the two China patents.
But then in July 2019, Qiu, her husband and students from China working in her lab were escorted out of the facility . Their employment finally ended in January. The Public Health Agency has offered little explanation, saying initially the matter dealt with policy and administrative issues. Meanwhile, an RCMP investigation of the situation has languished for two years with no end in sight.
Adding another wrinkle to the saga, Qiu was involved in a shipment of samples of Ebola and another lethal virus to the Wuhan lab in 2019, though the agency says that episode was unconnected to her removal.
The Globe and Mail reported recently that Qiu was barred from the lab after she and Cheng failed to pass screening by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, but that has not been confirmed by the government. The Globe also detailed her work with Chinese scientists, including a military researcher who worked for a time at the Winnipeg lab.
Qiu is listed as an inventor of the monoclonal antibodies for Ebola and Marburg i n patents filed in Canada and the United States. But it appears that versions of the two Chinese patents have not been registered anywhere else.
The Ebola “inhibitor” is based on a “bicyclic amine compound,” different technology than used in Z-Mapp. It’s unclear where the invention is at in development.
The Marburg test is touted in the patent as having high specificity in detecting the virus, being easy to use and fast, producing results within 90 minutes.
Qiu is listed as an author of several papers dealing with Marburg while working for the government, the most recent published this May.
It appears Qiu was either in violation of the inventions law or got permission from the minister, said Richard Gold, an intellectual property expert at McGill University.
Gold said he could only speculate on what happened but “this sounds very much like she did not get permission and that the government has a claim to the Chinese application.”
Canadian authorities have generally given short shrift to economic and national security issues when publicly funded researchers collaborate with foreign companies and governments, said Myra Tawfik, a University of Windsor professor specializing in intellectual property.
The case of Qiu’s patents, she said, “should be a cautionary tale.”
China’s aggressive attempts to lure scientific talent from the West have become an increasing concern for security agencies, with some researchers in the U.S. actually charged criminally with failing to divulge their Chinese paid work.
In most cases, the scientists recruited by Beijing have been academics or private-sector researchers, not direct government employees.
Johnson said national microbiology lab workers must abide by the inventions legislation. But asked if the Public Health Agency was concerned about one of its employees working with the Chinese government in such a way, Johnson said “open science and collaboration” are core to its work.
“The NML has policies and processes that allow for scientific collaboration and these are reviewed periodically as part of the Science Excellence initiative to adapt them as needed,” he said.
Qiu immigrated from China in 1996 with medical and immunology degrees and worked at the NML since at least 2003. With colleagues there, she helped develop an Ebola treatment based on so-called “monoclonal antibodies,” which became part of a drug called Z-Mapp. For that work she was awarded the Governor General’s innovation award in 2018 — the year between the two China patents.
But then in July 2019, Qiu, her husband and students from China working in her lab were escorted out of the facility . Their employment finally ended in January. The Public Health Agency has offered little explanation, saying initially the matter dealt with policy and administrative issues. Meanwhile, an RCMP investigation of the situation has languished for two years with no end in sight.
Adding another wrinkle to the saga, Qiu was involved in a shipment of samples of Ebola and another lethal virus to the Wuhan lab in 2019, though the agency says that episode was unconnected to her removal.
The Globe and Mail reported recently that Qiu was barred from the lab after she and Cheng failed to pass screening by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, but that has not been confirmed by the government. The Globe also detailed her work with Chinese scientists, including a military researcher who worked for a time at the Winnipeg lab.
Qiu is listed as an inventor of the monoclonal antibodies for Ebola and Marburg i n patents filed in Canada and the United States. But it appears that versions of the two Chinese patents have not been registered anywhere else.
The Ebola “inhibitor” is based on a “bicyclic amine compound,” different technology than used in Z-Mapp. It’s unclear where the invention is at in development.
The Marburg test is touted in the patent as having high specificity in detecting the virus, being easy to use and fast, producing results within 90 minutes.
Qiu is listed as an author of several papers dealing with Marburg while working for the government, the most recent published this May.
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