The outreach raised new questions about the moral use of fetal tissue and stem cells in a pioneering investigation, ahead of a presidential election in which Trump presented himself as a fierce anti-abortion candidate.
“President Trump has openly opposed fetal tissue studies, and he has used it. I think she’s incredibly hypocritical in all areas,” said Lawrence Goldstein, a member of the Ethics Advisory Committee on Human Fetal Tissue Research at the National Institutes of Health and a senior member of the University of California, San Diego.
The Regeneron cocktail was developed from mouse and hamster mobiles, but the efficacy of the antibody’s ability to neutralize the virus was tested in a mobile line derived from an aborted fetus in the 1970s.
Regeneron stated that he did not have the remedy to rely on fetal tissue, as the cells were acquired a long time ago. The 293T lineage used continued to divide and expand within a crop for decades and was used in clinical discovery, even though it came here from fetal tissue, according to experts.
“They are considered immortalized mobiles” (non-mobile mother) and are a common and widespread tool in study labs,” a Regeneron spokesman told ABC in a statement. The mobile line” is not used in any other way and fetal tissue not used in these studies. “
Other corporations competing to find effective treatments, and despite everything a vaccine against the new coronavirus, have also made use of these mobile lines, which are commonly used in medical research.
A spokesman for AstraZeneca, one of the corporations that is currently preparing a vaccine, showed ABC News the use of the 293T mobile line in the progression of its vaccine, further noting that it “derives from one of the most widely used mobile lines in biology. investigation. “”
The New York Times reported that Moderna is also based on the same mobile line and that Johnson
In 2019, the administration suspended federal investment for clinical studies based on elective abortion fetal tissue cells. Fetal tissue from miscarriages is permitted under this law, although many scientists say it is difficult to use because there are abnormalities and other problems.
But the policy allowed the use of older existing mobile lines derived from aborted fetal tissue, such as that used through Regeneron -Array
“Promoting the dignity of human life from conception to death using herbs is one of the most sensible priorities of President Trump’s administration,” the Department of Health and Human Services said at the time. “Intramural studies that require a new acquisition of fetal tissue from elective abortions will be performed”.
When asked to comment, the White House and a senior fitness and human official only noticed that Regeneron’s studios were in line with their 2019 policy, which in the past allowed mobile lines to be established.
“The Administration’s policy on the use of human fetal tissue from elective abortions in studies has excluded in particular” established human fetal mobile lines (as of June 5, 2019), ” said the HHS official in a statement. Existing mobile lines that existed before June 5, 2019 would not mean the Administration’s policy on the use of human fetal tissue from elective abortions. “
The Charlotte Lozier Institute, which opposes abortion rights and fetal tissue research, called the debate about Trump’s remedy “uninformed” and expressed its help in the progression of the antibody cocktail.
“The cells were used to create the antibiotic cocktail itself,” said David Prentice, vice president and director of research, at a press conference on Friday. Prentice also serves on the NIH’s Fetal Tissue Ethics Advisory Committee and told reporters that the studies were “different from the production” of the cocktail treating the president.
“Yes, the drug is still infected with the moving stem or the aborted fetal tissue line, the moving line,” he said. “But it’s just not tainted in any of the tactics other people claim, and not in a way that makes Republicans incoherent. “
At the moment, there is no known “cure” for the new coronavirus. Some remedies have obtained emergency clearance. The cocktail of antibodies given to the president, manufactured through the biotechnology company Regeneron, is considered promising, still in its experimental phase.
“For me, it wasn’t therapeutic, it just made me better,” Trump said Wednesday outside in the Oval Office. “I call it a cure. “
Scientists say countless vital medical discoveries have been based on similar lab-grown cells that were originally derived from stem cells, special “blank” cells taken from human embryos or fetal tissue.
“Research on human fetal tissue has been central to clinical and medical advances that have saved millions of lives, and it remains a very important resource for biomedical research,” the International Society for Stem Cell Research wrote in a July letter. to the new ethics of the fetus. tissue. council established through the Trump administration.
“Fetal tissue has unique and valuable properties that cannot be replaced by other cell types,” the organization wrote.
In August, the HHS Ethics Committee rejected the investment for almost all proposals involving fetal tissue: thirteen out of 14. The only approved proposal was based on fabrics already won, “without wanting to gain more tissues”, according to the council report. ; It is also noted that “the tissues of miscarriage were a viable option for HFT”.
Deepak Srivastava, president of the Gladstone Institute and outgoing president of the International Society for Stem Cell Research, said it was vital to note that if the Trump administration’s ban was in effect when the mobile line used through Regeneron was made, the inventions that came here. this would not have been imaginable, adding testing the remedy that Trump received.
“We wouldn’t have to make the drugs we have, and Trump wouldn’t have won those antibodies,” Srivastava said. “And I’m involved in any movement that would make a slower discovery, because we’re still in the middle of this pandemic. “
Eric Strauss and Sony Salzman of ABC News contributed to the report.
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