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A new wrinkle in cancer therapy has received intense interest from the media after a federal panel approved CRISPR-Cas9 for a study that would target three types of cancer.
Unfortunately, many moving parts have to be organized and the result is a loss of resources and time. Jumping through redundant, seemingly endless regulatory hoops is a significant part of the burden, courtesy of an alphabet soup of local and federal entities.
The media completely missed this overregulation angle and misfired on another — the supposedly unique “ethical” issues raised by this clinical trial. Consider this, for example: “This new type of treatment, as exciting as it may be, also comes with some ethical side effects. . . . For starters, we, as a species, are opening doors to something we haven’t done before, playing with human genes.”
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However, the reality is that we have been “playing with human genes” to treat diseases in various ways for a very long time. This technology should not face higher scrutiny than other, similar products.
Read full, original post: Gene Therapy for Cancer: Overregulation Will Delay Its Benefit to Patients
