The number of [Zika] cases in the United States is continuing to increase, as are the known modes of transmission…One innovative approach is the creation of a self-destructing, genetically-engineered mosquito from the British company Oxitec.
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This approach has been successfully tested in Malaysia, Brazil, Panama and the Cayman Islands, with greater than 90% suppression of the wild population of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes.
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[However, t]he review of the proposed Oxitec field trial by the Food and Drug Administration has been an embarrassment….…
FDA regulates the genetic material introduced into the Oxitec mosquito as a “new animal drug”…The rationale is that introducing DNA into the genome of the mosquitoes is analogous to dosing them with a drug.
That presents a bizarre…regulatory conundrum, because…[r]egulators would somehow have to conclude that the genetic material that causes a male mosquito to self-destruct after producing defective offspring is safe and effective for the mosquito.
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It is past time for the White House and its regulatory agencies to unsnarl the tangle they’ve created.
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. Read full, original post: Why Are The Feds Blocking Technologies To Control The Mosquitoes That Spread Zika Virus?
