Representative imageBy Priyanka V Gupta

New Delhi: Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) will soon release the final document on guidelines for stem cell research, the draft of which was available on the ICMR and the DBT (Department of Biotechnology) websites for public reviews till July 31 this year. The guidelines are expected to help in curbing the unethical practices in regenerative medicine. The information was shared by Dr Geeta Jotwani, deputy director general, ICMR, at a recent event where MoU was signed between ABLE (Association of Biotechnology Led Enterprise) and FIRM (Forum for Innovative Regenerative Medicine) for industry research collaborations.

Dr Jotwani said, On the directives of DCGI (Drug Controller General of India), ICMR has been framing the guidelines for stem cell research and therapy since 2001. Unfortunately, there is no therapy available other than bone marrow transplantation, for which also no standard of care has been laid out. In that direction, we have been making periodic efforts by releasing the guideline documents in 2002, 2007, 2013 and now the updated documentation for 2017 is under finalization.

ICMR has been proactively working towards educating the stakeholders about the ethical practices in stem cell research and therapy, for which a special committee, called National Apex Committee for Stem Cell Research and Therapy (NAC-SCRT), has been formed to advise the scientists community. Regenerative medicine is an innovative science. As part of ICMR, more research is involved than getting into conclusion that we are ready for application. We are proactively making efforts to educate, create awareness and give directions to our scientists community and clinicians on how they should go about the research part of stem cell therapy, said Dr Jotwani.

There are many clinicians entering into unethical practices and promising general public about the available care in almost all sorts of incurable conditions, including autism, according to Dr Jotwani.

She said, We are always concerned about what the end users are getting and the promises that are being made to them. Hence, we are proactively being involved in interacting with different government agencies as well as the industry to curb the unethical practices for which we also established NAC-SCRT under the Department of Health Research, Government of India. The committee, which comprises of different government agencies as well as ethics and social groups, legal experts, representatives of drug controllers office and CDSCO (Central Drug Standard Control Organization), deliberates on the issues of upcoming technologies and takes proactive role in the regenerative medicine.

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ICMR's stem cell research guidelines soon to be released - ETHealthworld.com