A FRENCH company has won unprecedented rights to trawl through the DNA of China鈥檚 1.2 billion citizens for genes related to major diseases. Genset, based in Paris, has negotiated an exclusive deal with the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences in Beijing, which runs 25 research institutes and all China鈥檚 hospitals. But some geneticists are uneasy about the deal, fearing that the Chinese government will use information gleaned by the company to help implement the country鈥檚 controversial eugenics law, which has been in force since June last year.
Genset says that it will apply the same ethical safeguards as it would in the West when taking samples from Chinese citizens, including getting informed consent. It also says that genetic information about individuals would be used anonymously.
Genset and its partners in the deal, which include a French trading company called Tang Fr猫re International, plan to appoint about 20 researchers whose task will be to collect DNA and to ensure that diseases are correctly diagnosed. Samples will be analysed using gene sequencing machines in Paris. The information will be used to develop diagnostic tests and new drugs.
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But many geneticists are opposed to companies collaborating on human genetics with a country that has passed a eugenics law. The Chinese legislation requires couples who want to get married to undergo screening for certain genetic diseases, infectious diseases and mental disorders. For carriers of 鈥渋nappropriate鈥� genes, marriages are allowed only if couples agree to sterilisation or long-term contraception. The loose wording of the law gives the government a free hand to decide which conditions to test for.
Many researchers are threatening to boycott the next International Congress of Genetics, which takes place in Beijing in 1998, unless the law is repealed. And last week, Britain鈥檚 Genetical Society suspended its affiliation to the International Genetics Federation, which is organising the meeting, in protest against the law.
Genset鈥檚 president, Pascal Brandys, says he is sensitive to the depth of feeling on the screening issue, but is confident that the results of his company鈥檚 research will not be used to implement the eugenics law. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think it will be possible in the short term to do large-scale population screening, although it may become an issue in China in the next millennium,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e will work towards [new medicines], which is very different from population screening.鈥�
China鈥檚 population is a gold mine of genetic information. The country鈥檚 rural populations have remained relatively static this century, so each region has a unique blend of genes and diseases. This makes it much easier to trace hereditary diseases back to defective genes, which are unusually abundant where the disease is prevalent. 鈥淵ou can treat regional local populations almost like single families,鈥� says Brandys.
Also, the diseases that affect Chinese people are different from those in the West, so there will be the opportunity for studying new diseases. Cancer of the gullet, for example, is much more common in China than in the US and Western Europe.
Having signed a letter of intent to collaborate, Genset and the Chinese academy will now work on the details of the agreement. 鈥淚t鈥檚 our intention to have clauses related to ethics,鈥� says Brandys. Lu Shendong, the vice-president of the academy, said last week that he will not comment on the venture until the agreement has been finalised. In a statement issued last week through Genset, Lu and Ba Denian, the academy鈥檚 president, said: 鈥淲e view genomics research as extremely important for Chinese healthcare in the 21st century, and we are convinced that our joint effort will lead to fundamental discoveries which will benefit not just China but also the rest of the world.鈥�
British geneticists meeting last week in London voiced serious worries about the deal. 鈥淚f you have a commercial company coming to a major agreement like this with a government committed to widespread eugenic abuse, it鈥檚 something many scientists would be concerned about,鈥� says Peter Harper, professor of medical genetics at the University of Wales in Cardiff. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a pretty serious issue, and one that could bring genetics into grave disrepute in the West.鈥�
David Sherratt of the University of Oxford, president of the Genetical Society, says that before pressing ahead, Genset should secure specific promises that the information gained and released through the deal will not be used against individuals. 鈥淭he company should say that some bits of this law are wrong and evil,鈥� he says.