What’s new: China’s top health regulator plans this year to finish off revisions to guidelines on how human genetic material can be used in the country amid complaints that current restrictions are choking innovation.
In its legislative work plan for this year, the National Health Commission (NHC) included an amendment to the Detailed Rules for the Implementation of the Regulation on the Administration of Human Genetic Resources. The NHC released the work plan last week.
The term human “genetic resources” covers materials like organs, tissues or cells containing DNA, along with related data, which can be crucial to researching new drugs and therapies.
The background: The NHC took over supervision of human genetic resources from the Ministry of Science and Technology earlier this year, following a government reorganization plan unveiled during the National People’s Congress in March 2023.
Chinese regulators have shifted toward easing stringent regulations on the resources in response to complaints from industry and academia. Industry experts have called for authorities to relax controls on the use of these resources, such as by raising the administrative approval threshold for projects that collect human genetic material and by clarifying the definition of “foreign entities” that are subject to administrative review.
Since the NHC oversight of this area began, it has kicked off efforts to streamline administrative procedures so that genetic resources can be more effectively used to benefit public health, Caixin has learned.
Jiang Moting and Han Wei contributed to the story.
Contact reporter Kelly Wang (jingzhewang@caixin.com) and editor Michael Bellart (michaelbellart@caixin.com)
