Facing the possibility that they might have to destroy stored human blood and tissue samples because of a law on human biomedical samples passed last year, researchers yesterday urged the government to help them find a different solution.
Adopted on Feb. 3 last year, the Human Body Biological Database Management Act (人體生物資料庫管理條例) includes a one-year buffer period for researchers to obtain the required permits or consent to store human blood and tissue samples. After the deadline next year, all samples without proper paperwork have to be destroyed.
The biomedical industry estimates that by Feb. 5, it might have to destroy more than 1 million samples stored by hospital laboratories, biotech companies, or genetic databases that were before the legislation was enacted.
Epidemiologist Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁), who is a research fellow at Academia Sinica, said many important research projects, such as one on a lung cancer gene, have been suspended because the deadline is approaching.
He said that researchers took years to establish human biological databases. If they want to keep the samples, researchers now have to go back to ask the providers whether they agree that the samples can be used for new research, to submit the renewed agreement papers to the ethnics committee and then continue their research only after the renewed agreement passes a committee review, he said.
Academia Sinica researcher Chen Ting-hsin (陳定信), who specializes in hepatitis studies, said he had obtained human biological samples for research on Hepatitis B and gained consent from the providers to use the specimen in research.
“Now researchers have found that they could use the same samples for research on Hepatitis C, but have to go back to the patients to get their consent for using their samples for Hepatitis C studies,” he said. “It may seem easy in words, but it’s hard to do.”
Chen Chien-jen said that because the new law puts restrictions on exporting human biological samples, it would become more difficult for Taiwan to be included in transnational clinical studies.
Director of the Department of Health’s (DOH) Bureau of Medical Affairs, Shih Chung-liang (石崇良), said there were two possible ways to resolve the problem researchers face under the new law.
If the sample provider did not specify which research projects their samples were authorized to be used on, researchers may use the sample for new studies as long as the ethics committee approves, Shih said.
Shih said that researchers may also hide all information related to the sample provider so that it would be impossible to find out who that person was, or keep the sample temporarily until obtaining renewed consent before initiating new research.
However, several human rights groups, including the Taiwan Association for Human Rights, the Human Sample Protection Association Taiwan, the Taiwan Tongzhi Hotline Association and Taiwan Women’s Link, issued a joint statement yesterday calling on the DOH to execute the law as it is and destroy all unauthorized samples on Feb. 5. If the department violates the law, the statement said, they would report the case to the Control Yuan.
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
The Civil Aviation Administration yesterday said that it is considering punishments for China Airlines (CAL) and Starlux Airlines for making hard landings and overworking their cabin crew when the nation was hit by Typhoon Kong-rey in October last year. The civil aviation authority launched an investigation after media reported that many airlines were forced to divert their flights to different airports or go around after failing to land when the typhoon affected the nation on Oct. 30 and 31 last year. The agency reviewed 503 flights dispatched by Taiwanese airlines during those two days, as well as weather data, flight hours
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Three people have had their citizenship revoked after authorities confirmed that they hold Chinese ID cards, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said yesterday. Two of the three people were featured in a recent video about Beijing’s “united front” tactics by YouTuber Pa Chiung (八炯) and Taiwanese rapper Chen Po-yuan (陳柏源), including Su Shi-en (蘇士恩), who displayed a Chinese ID card in the video, and taekwondo athlete Lee Tung-hsien (李東憲), who mentioned he had obtained a Chinese ID card in a telephone call with Chen, Liang told the council’s weekly news conference. Lee, who reportedly worked in
RSS