On July 22, 2010, Dr. Jeffrey Shuren, Director of FDA’s CDRH, testified under oath before Congress that 23andMe was not doing any original research. Yet two days earlier, Dr. Shuren sat before a podium in which Anne Wojcicki, CEO of personal genomics startup 23andMe, gave a speech detailing 23andMe’s peer-reviewed research, which made the cover of Wired and was published in PLoS Genetics.
Shuren’s testimony was important, because several members of Congress seized on his statements to conclude that there would be no impact on genomics research if 23andMe was shut down. However, several senior faculty at Stanford University have now gone on record to state that Dr. Shuren’s testimony was factually inaccurate.
Was Dr. Shuren intentionally misleading Congress to justify a regulatory crackdown on startups in favor of what he describes as “traditional manufacturers” like Genentech? Was he simply mistaken? Or is there another explanation?
READ MORE:
http://www.fdablog.org/2011/03/fdas-shuren-accused-of-misleading.html
http://blogs.plos.org/genomeboy/2011/03/09/making-movies/
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2011/03/your-genes-your-rights-fdas-jeffrey-shuren-not-a-fan
UPDATE March 8, 2011:
Two tenured Stanford professors in computational biology have now gone on record to assert that Shuren’s statements before Congress were indeed false.
http://fdablog.org/2011/03/controversy-grows-around-fdas-shuren.html
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Yes, indeed. Dr. Shuren plainly lied under oath. Clearly, he's a mouthpiece for big pharma, and it is shameful the way the congressmen enabled his pernicious testimony. This is an outstanding example of why we citizens have so little faith in government today.
Who out there knows how many ex-Monsanto rats are currently filling positions at the FDA? Of course, they lie…they lie about everything!! We're all their freaking lab rats! It's sickening! Peace Out. MWUD??
Jeez, listening to Waxman spit out that question was painful!
Yes, Dr. Jeffrey Shuren lied under oath!
Mr. Latta wants to protect people from 'their desire to be healthy' by means of 'strenuous regulations'? What good has ever come from keeping information away from people? I honsestly can't think of something and i'd really like to hear why he believes that 😡