Viewpoint: US may be losing CRISPR race against China, but FDA regulations are worth it

[H]ow did China edge out the United States to become the first to use CRISPR in humans? American researchers were, after all, the ones who discovered the techniques’ ability to tweak and alter DNA.

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China is already so far along, and in some instances, their efforts are showing positive results. If American researchers led the CRISPR discovery and early race, what handicap is allowing China to gain the lead? It’s a little something called the FDA. And it’s worth the lost race. To gain approval for their trial, Chinese researchers had to present their plan to the hospital’s ethics committee. According to the Wall Street Journal, this committee is made up of a handful of the hospital’s doctors, a lawyer, and a former cancer patient.

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Unlike China, the United States has a far more painstaking and demanding system to bring a new drug or therapy to the market.

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While it’s hard to sit with the idea of potentially losing a medical breakthrough race, it’s important to remember how and why the United States created the FDA in the first place.

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Learning from our past, it is wise that we remain cautious and go through the regulatory procedures that have been a century in the making.

Read full, original post: China might be winning the CRISPR race, but we have the FDA