GE boon to medical safety, inquiry told

Seven New Zealanders are known to have died from Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease (CJD), some of them after using a natural growth hormone drawn from humans, the Royal Commission on Genetic Modification was told yesterday.

But the deaths linked to the hormone taken from humans had stopped when a genetically engineered product was substituted.

CJD disease comes in two forms. A naturally occurring type normally occurs in old people with an incidence of about one person in a million, and a newer form of the disease, known as variant CJD (vCJD), is associated with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or mad cow disease in cattle in Britain.

But the naturally occurring form of CJD came to prominence in New Zealand over a decade ago when several people who had been treated with a growth hormone extracted from human pituitary glands developed the disease at much earlier age than expected.

Professor Peter Gluckman, submitting on behalf of Auckland University's research institution, Uniservices, said there had been no CJD death linked with the growth hormone since 1986, when it had been replaced by a genetically engineered version. It was an instance where a GE product had improved medical safety.

"It is a technology that has created fear for a variety of reasons," Professor Gluckman said.

"But it's not different from other advances ... society adapts."

Pointing out that some orthodox Jews would not eat nectarines, a created, but non-GE hybrid of peach and plum, Professor Gluckman likened the stance of GE opponents to a religious ideology.

"But beliefs shouldn't hold people hostage."

The next 50 years would see if New Zealand would be an economic power or become economically dependent, he said. "We either stay in the first world or we leave it ... "

The so-called "precautionary principle," the call to balance risks and benefits, was sensible, he said, but it was impossible to guarantee no-risk.

"I can't promise you that an asteroid won't wipe out the planet in the next 12 months, but it is unlikely.

"And the only time I can promise you that a plane won't crash is when you get off at the end of a trip."

Queensland University molecular biology Professor John Mattick said the new technology was "the third great development" - after the industrial revolution and info-technology.

Also dismissing opposition as "ideological," Professor Mattick said it was telling that there seemed to be little community concern about genetic research in medicine.

"That's because it's well tested and, more importantly, actually works.

"Telling someone with diabetes that a modified [drug] shouldn't be used, would be impertinent to say the least," he said.

In 25 years of genetic research, involving hundreds of thousands of cloned genes, there had yet to be a significant problem, he said.

There had been one death in a United States clinical trial, but this had been an unexpected complication, not related to the research laboratory.

Earlier, David Parker, representative of A2 Corporation, a company with patent rights arising from the discovery of a likely link between a particular protein found in some cow's milk and a type of human diabetes, said the research had "major health implications."

"Scientific research has always used knowledge or technology from one area of science to push boundaries in others," he said.

"To stop the life sciences in New Zealand from using the technology we now have to advance our knowledge would, in my opinion, be wrong."

- NZPA

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