A federal advisory panel searching for ways to publicly monitor gene therapy research failed Thursday to make final decisions, but planned to meet again in three months.
Pushed by the first death of a patient caused by gene therapy and a groundswell of public concern, the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee is trying to establish a new system that would compel researchers to file public reports on any illness or death by patients enrolled in genetic experiments.
“We’re going to have to do this, or it will be done for us,” said Sue L. Levi-Pearl, science director of the Tourette’s Syndrome Association and a committee member.
Members of the committee, which advises the National Institutes of Health, recommended changes in regulations that would stiffen the NIH reporting requirements of researchers now permitted to conduct human experiments in gene therapy.
But the 15-member committee could not reach an agreement on details of the plan.
