(JP)Human tissue bank to help in new drug research

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http://www.asahi.com/english/national/K2001081500273.html

 

Human tissue bank to help in new drug research

 

The Asahi Shimbun

Aug 15, 2001

 

The government is teaming up with private industry to

open a human tissue bank for medical and

pharmaceutical research.

 

According to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry

and the Japan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers

Association, the nonprofit tissue bank could be up and

running as early as this fall.

 

The Japan Health Sciences Foundation, under the

jurisdiction of the health ministry, has asked eight

medical institutions in the Tokyo metropolitan area,

including university hospitals, to donate human tissue

taken from consenting surgical patients.

 

The tissue will be frozen and kept at the foundation's

Health Sciences Research Bank in Sennan, Osaka

Prefecture.

 

Tissue will be given to companies and research

institutions whose research programs have been

approved. Researchers will study the effects and

safety of drugs on human tissue before conducting

human protocols.

 

The bank is expected to maintain a stockpile of up to

10 grams each of livers, lungs, kidneys and other

organs.

 

A spokesman for the pharmaceutical industry said

studies are being conducted on how best to transport

the tissue.

 

``The problem now is whether we can get cooperation

from medical institutions to acquire a sufficient

amount of tissue,'' an executive at a pharmaceutical

firm said.

 

Officials said creating and operating the tissue bank

will not require any changes in the law.

 

The ministry hopes the nonprofit, public bank will

help prevent commercial trade in human tissue. The

ministry will also require the tissue bank to gain the

consent of donors who will remain anonymous.

 

An ethics committee to monitor the use of the tissue

is expected to be established.

 

In Japan, many drug development projects fail when

tested on humans even though the drugs have been

successfully used on animals.

 

In the United States, organs for transplants that

prove inappropriate after extraction are routinely

used to obtain tissue for the development of new

drugs.

 

Although using organs in this way is banned in Japan,

it is legal to use tissue extracted during surgical

procedures.

 

Until now, pharmaceutical firms have used imported

human tissue. In the past they sometimes used tissue

provided by hospitals in Japan under special

contracts.

 

But critics have questioned the ethics of the

practice, notably the risk of infringing on the

patients' privacy and trading in human tissues.

 

The old Health and Welfare Ministry's council on

health sciences in 1998 said tissue donors should be

given adequate prior information and the tissue should

be offered for research at no charge.

 

(08/15)

 

 

 

 

 

 

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