'All the required procedures and protocol are in place and it will be set up any time,' assistant director general of ICMR Dr Geeta Jotwani said.
Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) will set up the much awaited National Apex Committee, a body to regulate the scientific community on the crucial health research of stem cell therapy by April.
Called the National Apex committee for Stem cell Research and Therapy (NAC-SCRT) it would be a mechanism to monitor and
review the stem cell research, technologies, techniques and
clinical practises.
"All the required procedures and protocol are in place and it will be set up any time," assistant director general of ICMR Dr Geeta Jotwani said.
Once it is formed, all the institutions conducting stem cell research have to compulsorily register under it besides having their own Institutional committee on stem cell research and therapy (IC-SCRT), she said.
NAC-SCRT will also maintain a registry for all clinical trials that are conducted in the country, along with the SC therapy clinics and patients and volunteers participating in it. Currently all the trials are supposed to be self regulated under IC-SCRT.
Admitting that the ICMR has delayed the formation of NAC which allowed several doctors and scientists to claim their findings as successful based on personal testimony duping relatives of several terminally ill patients.
Stem Cell research in India is still in its infancy and ICMR and all the basic research scientists cautioned public about claim about stem cell therapy by any doctor based on personal testimony at a Public consultancy meeting held at Nehru centre yesterday.
Such claims also hurt the feelings of innumerable patients suffering from muscular dystrophy and spinal injury as they become even irregular in their conventional treatment having false hope to get a miracle cure soon, Dr Alok Srivastava, Professor of Medicine and Head Haematology department and centre for stem cell research at Vellore Christian medical college at the ICMR's 'Public consultation' meet today on the ICMR-DBT guidelines for stem cell research.
ICMR said stem cell research should be promoted in the country in view of its potential for its clinical use but the at the same time in the name of innovation the doctors should not claim anything without putting their findings in the scientific journals.
Knowing the importance of the cutting edge science of stem cells, ICMR along with the Department of Biotechnology which brought out guidelines in 2007 have initiated public and other stakeholders opinion on the ICMR-DBT guidelines on stem research and therapy to improve it before it goes for the process of legislation, Jotwani said.
All the important suggestions made at these public consultation meetings will be incorporated in the guidelines if required, she said.
The brainstorming session was held in Mumbai for the western region and similar meetings will be held in Chennai, Kolkata, Delhi and possibly Bangalore.
The areas of concern discussed today was ethical and moral issues of using spare embryos , creation of embryos for research purpose, therapeutic cloning. Also there were questions raised about the efficacy of the cord blood banks and its proper utilisation and huge public investment involved in it.
"Stem cells have excited researchers and raised hopes of public because of their potential to relieve symptoms or treat many diseases. However, stem cell research raises many ethical, legal, scientific and policy issues that are of concern to the policy makers and public at large. As the research progresses and technologies advance, the regulatory system needs to be strengthened and a law has to be enacted," she said.
"Bone marrow transplantation nowadays fashionably termed ‘Stem Cell Therapy’ has been a standard mode of treatment for
leukemia for several decades. It will take many more years for
stem-cell-based therapies to move from bench to bedside," she
cautioned the waiting patients.
Science is not yet mature to recommend therapies to the patients, but many clinics are already exploiting the hopes of patients, encouraging ‘medical tourism’, collecting large sum of money without any scientific basis, transparency, regulations or patient safety,Srivastava said.
"Such unproven therapies put patients at risk and may affect stem cell research also adversely, on the issue," she said.
The meeting was attended by large number of stakeholders and medical experts and few patients’ relatives.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}