MARCH 16, 2015
Life-sciences
researchers and public health workers play key roles in mitigating the threat
of infectious diseases in the United States and around the world.
Working with
pathogens in the laboratory is vital to ensuring that the United States and the
global community have the right cutting-edge tools—such as drugs, diagnostics,
and vaccines—to counter the ever evolving threat of infectious disease and
ensure biomedical progress. It is also the responsibility of the Government to
ensure that this research is conducted safely and securely.
That’s why the
Federal Select Agent Regulations were enacted in 2002 to oversee the possession,
transfer, and use of bacteria, viruses, fungi, or toxins that have the
potential to threaten public and agricultural health. In order to better adapt
policies to the current landscape, the National Security Council and Office of
Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) sent a joint memo in August 2014 to
federal departments and agencies involved in life-sciences research, urging
them to take immediate and longer-term steps to address the underlying causes
of recent laboratory incidents and strengthen overall biosafety and biosecurity
in the United States.
Among a number of
robust steps, the memo directed the formation
of an interagency group to comprehensively review the impact that the current
select agent regulations have on science, technology, and national security. To
ensure that this review benefits from diverse perspectives and the broadest
possible input, OSTP is holding a series of stakeholder listening sessions, the
first of which was held on February 17, 2015, to ensure that members of the
scientific, regulatory, and security communities, as well as interested
citizens, have an opportunity to provide direct feedback on this important
issue.
In addition, today
OSTP issued a Request for Information to
solicit feedback from the broader public and expert community.
Anyone can submit
comments through this request for information and we welcome your input. The
Request for Information, along with instructions on how to submit input, can be
found in the Federal Register here. The
comment period will close at 5pm ET on March 30, 2015.