Hutchison Paul: Medicines (Specified Biotechnical Procedures)  Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Hutchison Paul: Medicines (Specified Biotechnical Procedures)  Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:625;Page:20598] 
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON (National—Port Waikato) 
: 
 I thank the Chair for a further call on the Medicines (Specified Biotechnical Procedures) Amendment Bill. As I said earlier the Labour Government has certainly taken a “head in the sand” approach to science in this country and that is very regrettable. I am sorry to hear that New Zealand First and United Future have also taken such a similar stand as there is a clear need by the thousands of people in New Zealand suffering from diabetes to progress this technology. And the way not to do it is to have a blanket moratorium. 
It is very important to realise that a whole spectrum of procedures is associated with xenotransplantation and again the Ministry of Health supplied these to the Health Committee. It pointed out that firstly there can be whole organ xenotransplantation an example of which is transplantation of an animal kidney. Secondly there can be cellular transplantation—the transplantation of insulin-producing pancreatic cells. Thirdly there is external xenotransplantation therapy—passing a patient’s blood through a medical device such as an artificial liver that contains animal liver tissue. So it is important to establish that xenotransplantation is not one simple procedure but many. 
Heather Roy spoke earlier about the Diatranz development in New Zealand and the fact that back in the 1990s it had carried out six xenotransplantation episodes on diabetics by way of an intraperitoneal capsule until they were stopped by this Labour Government. I must say that at the time Mai Chen a hugely well-known lawyer submitted to the select committee that she believed the Supplementary Order Paper brought in by the Government was literally a constitutional outrage. I absolutely agree with her. It gave no opportunity for Diatranz to submit its case. 
But even more important is the fact that one of the problems at the time was the concern about the pig endogenous retrovirus which was contained in the cells that Diatranz was using. Pig islet cells are now available that do not contain the pig endogenous retrovirus and that has taken away this very important worry. 
As was explained by Heather Roy the procedure is a very elegant and innovative one whereby the pig islet cells are placed within a capsule which is then by laparoscope placed within the intra-abdominal cavity. The cells themselves are coated so they do not have an antigen-antibody response but merely produce the insulin. In February this year one of the patients looked again at his own pig cells and they were found to be still producing insulin. It thrilled him and it thrilled the international scientific community yet the Labour Government is placing a blanket moratorium on a very safe innovative elegant procedure that will do great good for the biotechnology industry in New Zealand let alone for the tens of thousands of diabetic patients in this country. 
The point I want to stress is the fact that a whole spectrum of procedures is available. It is not just a matter of a pig heart or a pig kidney going into a human being. It can be cellular xenotransplantation. This issue should be taken on a case by case basis according to the risks that are associated with it. This blanket moratorium will only set back science in New Zealand by many many years. 
The other interesting point that came out at the meeting in Parliament given by the Royal Society of New Zealand was that it now views the future of this technology as complementary to the technology of stem cell research. For New Zealand to say suddenly: “We are going to put a moratorium on it and we are going to wait for the Bioethics Council until it has consulted and deliberated on it.” is simply not a meaningful or sensible approach to science and it is being endorsed by a Government that says biotechnology should be one of the main focuses of the innovation initiative.