Mumbai: 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 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
leukaemia 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.
PTI
