The Biden administration has delivered another blow to the firm that sent taxpayer money to the Wuhan virus lab, announcing it has suspended EcoHealth Alliance’s president from being able to work on government-funded projects.

Dr. Peter Daszak also faces a more permanent debarment from federal funds, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

HHS said he “lacks the present responsibility” to get government money.

“I find that the information in the record constitutes adequate evidence to demonstrate that the immediate suspension of Dr. Peter Daszak is necessary to protect the public interest provided his role as the President of EHA,” an HHS official wrote in the debarment memo.

The move comes a week after HHS suspended and began debarment procedures against EcoHealth itself.

EcoHealth used money from the National Institutes of Health to fund research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the lab at the center of speculation about the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The firm has denied funding risky gain-of-function research and HHS has not concluded that it was implicated in the pandemic. But the department has found that EcoHealth failed to report on a potential red flag involving the research, breaking the terms of its funding arrangement with NIH.

After the outbreak of the pandemic, EcoHealth also failed to get the Wuhan lab to provide information on its work, breaking another part of the deal that requires grantees to have control of their subgrants. HHS said EcoHealth failed to include those terms in its deal with the Chinese lab.

The Washington Times has reached out to EcoHealth for comment.

The firm previously said it would contest its debarment.

• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.