Preparing for Future Products of Biotechnology

TheNational Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NAS) were asked to form a committee in response to the order from the Executive Office of President in July 2015, in which the EPA, FDA, and USDA were charged with the responsibility of analyzing "the future of biotechnologies in regards to potential new risks and frameworks for risk assessment and areas in which risks or lack of risks relating to the products of biotechnology are well understood." NAS published a report on Preparing for Future Products of Biotechnology in which they release their findings of what the future of biotechnology may look like in the next 5-10 years. The report explores how regulatory agencies can ensure that they effectively and efficiently evaluate future biotechnology products.   

The committee summarized actions that the regulatory agencies can take in order to ensure they are prepared for anticipated future biotechnology products. They are as follows:  

Recommendation 1: EPA, FDA, and USDA should increase scientific capabilities, tools, expertise and horizon scanning in key areas of expected growth of biotechnologies, including natural, regulatory, and social sciences 

Recommendation 2: EPA, FDA, and USDA should increase use of pilot projects  

Recommendation 3: Funders should increase investments in regulatory science and link research and education activities to regulatory-science activities  

For details and more information regarding the committee's findings and recommendations, please see their official report.