shares of hong konglisted biotechnology companies fell sharply wednesday after media reports of imminent us sanctions against some companies in the sector wuxi biologics cayman inc skidded 19 to 7910 hong kong dollars its lowest closing level in a year while wuxi apptec co slid 19 beigene ltd which made its trading debut in shanghai with a third global listing retreated 76 in hong kong innovent biologics inc declined 99 and genscript biotech corp lost 11 the declines come after the financial times reported that the us commerce department on thursday is expected to place some chinese companies involved in biotechnology on its entity list which is designed to limit access to key us exports the wall street journal reported last week that us officials were considering adding more chinese technology companies to that list and to a us treasury department list banning us investment in the coming months amid rising competition with china the hang seng hong konglisted biotech index slumped 71 to 166971 weakness in the biotech sector dragged the benchmark hang seng index lower as it gave up morning gains to close 09 lower at 2342076