We have technologies in place to regulate genome editing, gene drive —DG, NBMA

Dr Rufus Ebegba, Director General of the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) in this interview, speaks on the amended NBMA Act, and the efforts by the agency to ensure it regulates emerging technologies. COLLINS NNABUIFE brings excerpts .

RECENTLY, the President, signed the amended NBMA Act, what are the major changes?

There is one major aspect of the Act that has been amended. All these amendments are basically inclusion. The main act was not actually tampered with. These are additions to the mandate of the agency to ensure that there are no gaps. There is a major aspect of it which is biosecurity. The mandate given to the agency through the amendment is to put in place measures to ensure biological agents or substances do not have negative impact on the environment and human health.

So, we are going to be looking at the broader aspect of it and working with stakeholders, ministries and agencies. We know that in the medical sector, there is a lot of biological waste that is not properly controlled. We are going to come up with guidelines to control it.

We are also going to be looking at the laboratories. Apart from the medical laboratories, we are also going to look at the research laboratories to make sure they have proper disposal measures in place.

We are also going to look at the possibility of ensuring counter-bioterrorism because of the possibility of using harmful biological agents to terrorize citizens. We will ensure that it doesn’t happen.

We are also going to work closely with the police, the Interpol and some other agencies responsible for security.

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Do you have the technology to regulate genome editing?

The regulation of this aspect of technology is based on science and knowledge. For you to be a successful regulator of this sector, you need to have the foreknowledge and know what the science is about as well as, how these products are being developed. Once you have that basic knowledge, you will now be able to look at what regulatory measures are in place. The current law we have in place will guide us on how to ensure that this new aspect of the technology is properly regulated, and to ensure that products that will be coming out will be safe to the environment and human health.

Are you monitoring the ongoing confined field trial of the genetically modified crops in Nigeria?

Yes, we monitor the confined field trial. Apart from monitoring, the applicant himself does a lot of monitoring. What we do basically is inspection for compliance. We ensure that we do that to make sure that the terms and conditions are properly complied with. We do that constantly. We send some staff to see the institutions, to find out what is going on, to make sure that they are in conformity with our terms and conditions also with the law.

Do we have applications for new GM crops?

Yes, we received an application from the Institute of Agricultural Research (IAR), Zaria, for Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA), and we are reviewing the application. Once we are done with it, we will put the result on the website for people to see. There is going to be a public notice before we complete the process.

What are the major developments in biosafety?

One of the major development is the new act which Mr President signed in the month of July. It is an amendment to the 2015 act, but this amendment did not affect the main act. It is an additional mandate to the agency in the area of synthetic biology, genome editing and gene drive; and one other aspect of it which has not been regulated in this country is biosecurity, in ensuing that biological agents do not have any potential to cause harm in the environment, nor will anybody use it maliciously to cause harm either to human or the environment. That is one major event.

Some people are worried that if gene drive can make a mosquito not to reproduce, how safe are humans when they are bitten by that same mosquito?

Some of the major things that we will be looking at in the area of gene drive is, for example, if you are using it to control a particular pathogen, if you control this organism, what will be the impact on other organisms, because some of these organisms have a balancing effect in the ecosystem. For instance, if you decide to reduce the population of mosquitos, fish and bird feed on mosquitos, and other organisms feed on mosquito larva; how will it affect those population? Those are the things we are looking at. We are going to look at the ecological impact critically. Will it lead to even more pathogens that will cause more diseases? it is a holistic analysis of possible impacts.