One of the PIs from our facility went to the FDA meeting. The board
itself was made up of transplatation physicians. How's that for an
unweighted review board. The general consensus of the review board and
invited scientists from other fields (ie virologists, etc.) was to go
ahead with the transplantation. The final word however is not yet in on
whether on not the transplantation will take place. From what I heard
the issue was thoroughly discussed and many issues raised from the
possibility of new plague to if the transplantation doesn't take place in
this country the surgeons will do it in another country. Again, general
consensus was that things could be better monitored here than in another
country.
Also present at the meeting was the AIDS patient and family. They
were very supportive of the procedure for obvious reasons and wanted the
transplantation to proceed as soon as possible. The sad thing is that
the likely hood that this protocol will work is very low. I'm not sure
that the patient or family is really in touch with this. There seemed to
be little doubt on the part of our PI that this proceedure will be
performed and once the decision to go ahead is given, the
transplantation will take place very soon thereafter.
There is also a report in this weeks Nature regarding the FDA meeting.
The entire issue of xenographs is a little scary but, would make great
material for a sci-fi book.
Well this is one persons perception of the meeting. Is there anyone
out there who actually attended the meeting that would like to share
their first hand reactions and perceptions? Xenographs is in need of
wide discussion. Regards, Mary
