The Health Ministry is keen to bring in a legislation on the stem cell research based on the already published guidelines and the consensus among the stakeholders, even as efforts to announce the National Apex Committee for Stem Cell Research and Therapy (NAC-SCRT) are still stuck up.
The ministry is learnt to have asked the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) to incorporate the suggestions gathered from the public consultations on the guidelines for stem cell research and draft a bill to be presented to the cabinet for approval.
However, sources at the same time remained non-committed on the formation of the NAC-SCRT, which has been in the offing for a long time now. "It is being constituted as per the guidelines. It will be announced soon," sources said, refraining from going into the details. The committee will have the responsibility to examine the scientific, technical, ethical, legal and social issues in the area of stem cell based research and therapy.
A section in the ministry is reportedly in favour of announcing the committee only after passing the bill by the Parliament. But on the other hand, DBT, which has been jointly finalizing the guidelines for stem cell research, is pushing for early creation of the NAC-SCRT which is very crucial in streamlining the stem cell research activities in the country through registration of investigators and institutions.
The NAC will set up standards for safety and quality, quality control, procedures for collection and its schedule, processing or preparation, expansion, differentiation, preservation for storage, removal from storage to assure quality and/or sterility of human tissue, prevention of infectious contamination or cross contamination during processing, carcinogenicity and xenotransplantation.
Meanwhile, the ICMR has already held three public consultations in Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata as part of evolving consensus which the health ministry wanted to have after the submission of the guidelines to it by the ICMR. The consultations also saw a number of stakeholders pressing for a time-frame for the implementation of the legislation and creation of the NAC.