U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) on Friday said a draft report released this month by the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) highlights the lack of rigorous oversight in the government’s Potential Pandemic Pathogen Care and Oversight, or P3CO framework, which regulates research on pathogens that pose a risk of igniting a pandemic.
“The NSABB’s draft report further underscores the need for changes to the P3CO to ‘engender public trust in the review and oversight processes,’” said Rep. McMorris Rodgers, chair of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee. “I am encouraged that now even the Biden administration recognizes this fact.”
The NSABB’s draft January report, “Proposed Biosecurity Oversight Framework For The Future of Science,” includes draft findings and recommendations from two NSABB Working Groups tasked by the federal government in February 2022 with evaluating the P3CO and Dual Use Research of Concern (DURC) oversight frameworks.
For instance, a few of the report’s draft findings are that current P3CO policy does not adequately include roles for investigators and institutions in the identification, review, and ongoing oversight of ePPP [enhanced potential pandemic pathogens] research, and the current scope of the DURC policies is limited.
A draft recommendation in the report suggests amending the P3CO framework to include and articulate specific roles, responsibilities, and expectations for investigators and institutions in the identification, review, and evaluation of research for potential involvement of ePPPs, taking into account existing review and oversight processes.
“However, these recommendations are just the start, and our committee’s oversight will push for greater transparency into how the United States makes funding decisions regarding potentially risky pathogenic research,” Rep. McMorris Rodgers said.
The NSABB report also echoes concerns Rep. McMorris Rodgers, along with U.S. Reps. Brett Guthrie (R-KY) and Morgan Griffith (R-VA), originally raised in October 2021 and April 2022 in letters sent to the director of the National Institutes of Health and the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, respectively, regarding P3CO.