China Bio Law

Just doing some general research on the progress of stem cell research in China.

Here’s an old 2006 editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine, entitled “Bit Player or Powerhouse? China and Stem-Cell Research.”

The editorial essentially declares that China has the potential to become a stem cell powerhouse, but it simply isn’t there yet.  China is accumulating stem cell expertise, but as of yet it does not have the scientific infrastructure required for creating an environment conducive to making scientific breakthroughs in the field.

What are the main problems?

1. Funding.  They emphasized that funding of stem cell science by the government is in fact extremely limited, despite all the press.  The editorial says that the Ministry of Science and Technology funds stem cell research through two projects (basic and applied research programs), and provided ~$12 million USD to each between 2000 and 2005.  Including local government expenses, the whole figure for government funded stem cell research in China, is only ~$38 million between 2000 and 2006.  The editorial also claims that private sources of funding are “distinctly immature” in China.
2. Small talent pool.  It also gives a list of several leading stem cell researchers in China, I might look each of those up later, and says that there are between 300 and 400 Ph.D.s working on stem cells and seven “top-notch” labs associated with stem cells.  The article takes note that the pool of lower level researchers is smaller, and promising students often go abroad for advanced training.   And while China generally loses its students-cum-scientists to the United States, this trend may already be reversing.
3. Limited collaboration.  The article faults Chinese scientists for being too intensely competitive in getting their worked recognized at the international level, rather than creating informal networks of domestic cooperation.  This latter point about informal cooperative networks is one that I haven’t come across before, as most critiques of the Chinese scientific infrastructure focus on rigidity in the scientific hierarchy or the hyper-excessive focus on publication numbers.

But then China has some aces up its sleeves:

1. Cost advantage.  The editorial predicts that China should be able to maintain a cost advantage by being able to cheaply produced standardized components required for stem cell research, like laboratory animals and equipment for stem-cell manipulation.  It is also conceivable that wages could remain depressed for lower level research workers and supporting staff.  However, while the article admits that wages and material costs will rise as China develops, it also claims that more sophisticated sectors will retain a cost advantage for some time.  I’d be interested in studying why this is.
2. Attitude towards embryos.  Here the editorial seems to conflate stem cell research, generally, with the moral disputes that occur over using human embryos in stem cell research.  I wonder how many of those labs are actually doing stem cell research involving human embryonic stem cells.  Having said that, the points it brings up are true.  A very small part of the Chinese populace gets as aggravated about the use of human embryos in research as many portions of Western civil society.  The most salient government restrictions involving experimentation with embryos are concerned with implantation of an experimented upon embryo rather than what happens to the embryo itself.  All in all, the article is probably correct that there won’t be much “moral politicking” about the issue.
3. “Scientific fluidity” in translating research into medicine.  The authors emphasize that most regulation and review of clinical trials in China continues to occur within an institution, through an institution’s own Internal Review Board, and absent an external body with review powers, like the U.S. FDA’s  mechanisms.  This gives scientists considerably more leeway if the IRBs don’t function effectively.  And effectively function they definitely don’t.  A portion of my seminar paper was on this aspect of the regulation of clinical research; there are definitely serious deficiencies in the composition and functioning of IRBs, at least outside of China’s major research centers.  But as this editorial says, the likelihood that conformance with global standards could occur is pretty high, there’s a lot of pressure from government officials and scientists alike to institute internationally acceptable standards.  The problem, as it always is in China, is implementation.

I think the whole article is a pretty fair assessment of the situation three years ago.  Certainly, the government has pledged much more funding in the latest Five-Year Plan, but I don’t know how those funding goals were actually affected by the recession.  China’s talent pool will definitely grow, and we’ll see whether or not China’s innovative ability actually increases.  That is a development I will be very interested in watching.  You hear a lot about the shortcomings of China’s scientific establishment, and I think the ability or inability of China to create a homegrown industry of innovation will teach the world a lot about what is required to foster creative thinking.  And even if China conforms to global standards, the harm to “scientific fluidity” might be offset by increased foreign collaboration that such standards would encourage.