Rebuttals to the View That Biotech Is Unregulated and Inhumane

“Genetic Backlash” (May 24) was a thought-provoking article about the challenges the biotechnology industry faces in moving from lab to marketplace. Specifically mentioned was an effort by Jeremy Rifkin, a longtime biotech opponent, to halt the patenting of genetic materials. This wide-ranging story covered many issues, but I would like to add perspective to some of the items mentioned.

First, it is important for your readers to know that the industry and its activities are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In fact, biotech researchers voluntarily shut down their activities in 1975 until the federal government produced guidelines for such research. Biotech is not science run amok, as the article implies.

Second, the “few” biotech drugs referred to in the story are actually 32--vaccines included. Over 60 million people both in the United States and around the world have benefited from these medicines in the last 13 years. But millions of people suffering from cancer, AIDS, cystic fibrosis, multiple sclerosis and other intractable diseases are still waiting. Your readers should also know that development of virtually all of these 32 drugs was dependent on researchers’ being able to patent genetic material.

Third, the story says there is “ . . . increasing revulsion against experiments that involve putting human genes in pigs. . . . “ I won’t belabor the point that there is no attribution made for this revulsion. But what is more important is that the demand for heart, liver and other organs far outweighs the supply. Putting a human gene into an animal alters those immune determinants responsible for organ rejection. I suspect the thousands of people facing death without such transplants may not share such revulsion.

And finally, are there ethical considerations raised by the development of biotechnology? Absolutely. They need to be discussed. But we don’t believe that Mr. Rifkin’s latest misguided assault on biotechnology should halt progress--progress that follows the admonition of every major religion to help the sick and afflicted. “Hope deferred maketh the heart sick.” (Proverbs 13:12)

CARL B. FELDBAUM

President

Biotechnology Industry

Organization

Washington