Wednesday, April 6 2005 15:46 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Reacting to controversy on mushrooming of stem-cell clinics across the country, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) yesterday (Apr 5, 2005) said that there were guidelines on stem-cell research but there was no plan to convert them into legislation.

Addressing a joint press conference with All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) director P Venugopal and ICMR director general N K Ganguly said that the guidelines needed to be cleared by Drug Controller General of India.

Once these got cleared, there would be a provision for setting up of a monitoring committee, he said.

However, there was no plan to convert these guidelines into legislation, as "Stem-cell therapy is a new research area in which new developments are coming up almost every day," he said adding, "What kind of regulation or legislation could be set up?"

According to the guidelines, stem cells could not be used for cloning purposes while embryonic stem cells could be used with safeguards and there should not be "commoditisation of women" to obtain embryonic stem cells, he said.

On mushrooming of stem cell clinics in the country, guidelines say that stem-cell therapy cannot be used unless there is full infrastructure and experience, he said.

Endorsing AIIMS' research work, Ganguly said that the institute's cardiology department had been on the forefront of research. The institute used stem cell therapy on those heart Patients, who would not have benefited with routine therapy.

Patients' own stem cells were used from the bone marrow thus avoiding any problem of rejection.