§ Lord Alton of Liverpoolasked Her Majesty's Government:
What will be the future conduct of human gene therapy experiments in the United Kingdom following the decisions, arising from the death of an American teenager, of health officials in the United States to end all gene experiments at the Pennsylvania Institute for Human Gene Therapy and to inspect all other American gene therapy centres. [HL760]
§ Lord Hunt of Kings HeathThe present system of detailed evaluation of applications to conduct gene therapy clinical trials and the monitoring of safety of ongoing trials by the Medicines Control Agency and the Gene Therapy Advisory Committee (GTAC) will continue.
GTAC is currently reviewing the 11 existing United Kingdom gene therapy studies involving adenovirus vectors similar to those used in the trial in Pennsylvania. Unlike the Pennsylvania trial, no study active in the UK introduces adenovirus directly into the patient's circulation and doses used in the UK are lower. There have been no reports of unexpected serious side-effects as the result of treatment with any gene therapy product in the UK.