For Immediate Release
Regulatory Stranglehold on Gene Editing Would Threaten Sustainability of Global Food Animal Supply
Contact: Kathryn Ryan
914-740-2250
kryan@liebertpub.com
New Rochelle, NY, April 9, 2018—The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) 2017 draft guidance that proposed drug-like regulatory scrutiny of food animals produced using gene editing technology such as CRISPR has global implications for the future cost and feasibility of food animal production. This regulatory proposal fails to recognize that the same genetic changes could be achieved using conventional breeding techniques instead of newer molecular methods, and does not consider whether or not the changes are novel or present any hazards, as is clearly explained in a timely and insightful commentary published in The CRISPR Journal, a new peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on The CRISPR Journal website until April 23, 2018.
In “The Importance of a Novel Product Risk-Based Trigger for Gene-Editing Regulation in Food Animal Species,” Alison Van Eenennaam, University of California, Davis, cautions against making the regulatory process unnecessarily burdensome for using gene editing to make targeted changes that may be identical to existing genetic variants or might occur spontaneously. The use of gene editing tools accelerates the benefits that can be achieved with conventional animal breeding. Imposing a new drug-like regulatory framework on food animal production could prevent animal breeders from using gene editing to introduce beneficial traits such as disease resistance. Dr. Eenennaam suggests some alternative routes to regulatory approval that are in use in other countries.
“Now is the time to opine on questions that need to be addressed in regard to how CRISPR-based technologies should be implemented and regulated,” says Rodolphe Barrangou, PhD, North Carolina State University, Raleigh and Editor-in-Chief of The CRISPR Journal. “Though much of the attention is on human therapeutics, efforts already underway in livestock breeding compel us to cover this.”
About the Journal
The CRISPR Journal published bimonthly in print and online, is a groundbreaking new peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert Inc., publishers dedicated to outstanding research and commentary on all aspects of CRISPR and gene editing research. Led by Editor-in-Chief Rodolphe Barrangou, PhD, North Carolina State University, the Journal covers CRISPR biology, technology and genome editing, and commentary and debate of key policy, regulatory, and ethical issues affecting the field. For complete information, please visit the Journal website.
About the Publisher
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research. The CRISPR Journal adds an exciting and dynamic component to the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. portfolio, which includes GEN (Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News) and more than 80 leading peer-reviewed journals. A complete list of the firm’s 80 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website.