(CNN) Authorities in China say experiments which led to the birth of the world's first gene-edited babies broke the country's laws, state-run Xinhua news reported Monday. At the time, China's National Health Commission " immediately requested the Guangdong Provincial Health Commission to seriously investigate and verify" the claims made by the scientist. On Monday, investigators from Guangdong Province Health Commission said that "the case has been initially identified as an explicitly state-banned human embryo-editing activity for reproductive purposes conducted by He Jiankui," Xinhua reported. "We can ensure that the research wasn't conducted in our hospital nor were the babies born here," a Shenzhen Harmonicare Women's and Children's Hospital representative told CNN in November. Chinese scientist He Jiankui defended his research activity at the Second International Summit on Human Genome Editing in Hong Kong on November 28.

Source: CNN January 21, 2019 15:33 UTC