The number of [Zika] cases in the United States is continuing to increase, as are the known modes of transmission…One innovative approach is the creation of a self-destructing, genetically-engineered mosquito from the British company Oxitec.
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This approach has been successfully tested in Malaysia, Brazil, Panama and the Cayman Islands, with greater than 90% suppression of the wild population of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes.
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[However, t]he review of the proposed Oxitec field trial by the Food and Drug Administration has been an embarrassment….…
Related on the SLP
FDA regulates the genetic material introduced into the Oxitec mosquito as a “new animal drug”…The rationale is that introducing DNA into the genome of the mosquitoes is analogous to dosing them with a drug.
That presents a bizarre…regulatory conundrum, because…[r]egulators would somehow have to conclude that the genetic material that causes a male mosquito to self-destruct after producing defective offspring is safe and effective for the mosquito.
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It is past time for the White House and its regulatory agencies to unsnarl the tangle they’ve created.
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. Read full, original post: Why Are The Feds Blocking Technologies To Control The Mosquitoes That Spread Zika Virus?
