Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, where the unpublished, confidential evidence referred to in the updated Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority report, Third scientific review of the safety and efficacy of methods to avoid mitochondrial disease through assisted conception will be published.
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority have advised that, by examining both published and unpublished research, the Expert Panel is able to take into account the very latest research on a confidential basis.
Where the evidence is provided on a confidential basis, in time, that work will be published in peer reviewed journals. For example, some pieces of confidential evidence reviewed as part of the third scientific review have now been published in this way. These are:
- Mitalipov, S. et al (2014). Limitations of Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis for Mitochondrial DNA Diseases. Cell Reports 7(4);935-937
- Chinnery PF. et al (2014) The challenges of mitochondrial replacement. PLoS Genet. 2014 24;10(4):e1004315