PESHAWAR: Health department has decided to ask public sector universities to send human biological material and data for research purpose to Khyber Medical University after National Institute of Health has shown concerns that dispatching such samples to foreign countries can pose threats to national security.

Health department in collaboration with higher education department ensures enforcement of guidelines regarding biological research.

Recently, the Health Research Institute of National Institute of Health (NIH) Islamabad expressed concerns over violation of the guidelines of National Bioethics Committee (NBC) of Pakistan for transport of human biological material outside the country by researchers of various institutions.

A letter, sent to vice-chancellors of universities, said that there were instances where established protocols regarding ethical guidelines for collection, usage, storage and export of human biological material were not strictly followed by certain research teams. “It contravenes the established ethical standards and guidelines set forth at the national level to ensure ethical handling and transport of such sensitive material,” it added.

Officials say dispatching such samples to other countries can pose threat to national security

It said that if such material was being transported for diagnostic or patient care purposes, it was critical that clear undertakings should be taken and provided by all parties concerned ensuring that such materials could only be used for specific purposes, pre-specified and specimens destroyed after use.

“Given the gravity and sensitivity of the issue, it warrants a high level of ethical responsibility and compliance with guidelines to safeguard the rights, dignity and confidentiality of the individuals involved,” said the letter.

It said that any deviation from those protocols not only posed ethical risks but also undermined the credibility of institution and the integrity of their research endeavours and national guidelines.

“Large scale export of population genomic information also poses significant national security risks,” said the letter. It asked vice-chancellors to authorities concerned about such researches with names of the principal investigator, names of collaborating institutions, title of study, source of funding, approval solicited from NBCR and year of approval.

Health officials said that researchers sent those samples to for countries as part of their research projects. “These are either human sample of patients which means we are sending our genetic structure to foreign countries. This information can be potentially used against our Pakistani population for bioterrorism,” they added.

They said that sometimes researchers sent samples from pathogens that were prevalent in Pakistan. “These strains should not be sent to foreign countries whose population is not used to our strains. This can be potentially used for bioterrorism as well,” they added.

Officials said that they had been conducting genomics for researchers for about a year. “They just bring their own samples and kits and we provide them access to equipment as per policy of Higher Education Commission,” they said.

They said that blood and tissue samples, particularly in government-funded projects, should be sent to Khyber Medical University.

Dr Mohammad Zakaria at Advanced Centre for Genomic Technologies (ACGT) of Khyber Medical University (KMU), told Dawn that they were using cutting-edge technology to track how viruses and bacteria changed over time. He said that ACGT grew out of KMU’s Public Health Reference Laboratory (PHRL) played a key role in Covid-19 PCR testing. He added that it had a number of reasons to launch a genomic sequencing facility in the province.

“Now, we have the capacity to better understand the virus evolution and detect a new strain of Covid-19 or a totally new virus. Genomic sequencing facility is also needed to improve national standing,” he said.

Dr Zakaria said that Pakistan was put under travel ban by UK in 2021 because of lack of data on circulating Covid-19 variant. The ban was lifted when NIH and other sister laboratories started genomic sequencing, he added.

He said that the laboratory was equipped with three sequencers and could conduct both sanger sequencing and next-generation sequencing. “It has a sequencing capacity of 600 samples a month. During the last six months, this lab has produced the highest number of genomic sequences in Pakistan,” he said.

The director of PHRL, Dr Yasar Mehmood Yousafzai, said that the laboratory was started under patronage of KMU Vice-chancellor Dr Ziaul Haq and health department that was open for researchers across the province to conduct their genomic sequencing.

“Researchers are sending Pakistani samples abroad. It is not only a biological security threat but also results in loss of valuable foreign exchange,” he said.

Published in Dawn, May 1st, 2024