Washington Editor

WASHINGTON - President Bush's choice as director of the National Institutes of Health won Senate confirmation, just in time to enter the pending debate on Capitol Hill concerning therapeutic cloning.

But so far, Elias Zerhouni, 51, hasn't had to make many public statements about his views on controversial issues such as embryonic stem cell research or therapeutic cloning.

However, in a confirmation hearing held by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee a week ago, Zerhouni said: "Disease knows no politics. The NIH and its director should not be factional, but must always remain factual."

Zerhouni, who was born in West Algeria and immigrated to the U.S. in 1975, is executive vice dean at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, chairman of the department of radiology and radiological science at Johns Hopkins, and a professor of radiology and biomedical engineering. NIH officials in Bethesda, Md., said Zerhouni is expected to assume his new position soon.

"The NIH director should actively promote the necessary research within the policy guidelines laid out by the president, and in strict compliance with all laws passed by Congress," Zerhouni told the Senate committee, chaired by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.).

Once Zerhouni settles in, his first order of business likely will be cloning.

Bush gave the media a sneak preview of Zerhouni's view on the subject in a press conference last month when he said: "Dr. Zerhouni shares my view that human life is precious and should not be exploited or destroyed for the benefit of others. And he shares my view that the promise of ethically conducted medical research is limitless." (See BioWorld Today, March 27, 2002.)

Weeks before those comments, rumors around Washington had Zerhouni supporting a bill calling for a ban on all types of cloning introduced by Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), and word on the street was that Bush wasn't going to nominate anyone who didn't support a total cloning ban.

In response to those rumors, Carl Feldbaum, president of the Washington-based Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), this week told BioWorld Today that he has been assured Zerhouni was not selected based on the Brownback issue.

"We don't know whether he supports Brownback," Feldbaum said. "I don't have any objection to him personally; my objection was to any process of selection that included a single-issue litmus test. I have been assured that there was no such test applied to his nomination, contrary to some reports."

Furthermore, Feldbaum said, "From what we've learned about him, he appears to be well qualified and the NIH very much needs leadership. We look forward to working with him."

Feldbaum and the team at BIO continue lobbying for a bill crafted by Sens. Kennedy, Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) that bans human cloning but permits therapeutic cloning. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) also signed on in support of the legislation. (See BioWorld Today, May 2, 2002.)

Many scientists argue that therapeutic cloning applications could lead to revolutionary therapies for Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, spinal cord injuries, diabetes, heart disease and other debilitating conditions.

BIO expects the Senate to debate cloning within the next few weeks. In a 265-162 vote last summer, the House passed legislation introduced by Rep. Dave Weldon (R-Fla.) calling for a ban on therapeutic and human cloning. (See BioWorld Today, Aug. 6, 2001, and Nov. 27, 2001.)

Cloning aside, Zerhouni's view on the also-controversial stem cell research has been well documented. In his confirmation hearing, Zerhouni said Bush's stem cell policy, announced Aug. 9, is "an important advance in science. For the first time it allowed NIH funding for stem cell research, something which had not been done under previous administrations."

Bush's policy allows government funding for research on 72 existing stem cell lines. Before leaving office, President Bill Clinton signed an order that allowed the NIH to fund research on all embryonic stem cell lines as long as they were extracted using private money.

Zerhouni told the committee he was instrumental in creating the Institute for Cell Engineering, a part of John Hopkins, mainly "because I was concerned about the lack of any federal funding to advance the fundamental research still needed in this promising fledging field."

Tommy Thompson, secretary of Health and Human Services, released a prepared statement saying, "The NIH is the leading scientific research institute in the world, and Dr. Zerhouni will be a visionary and innovative leader as we work to cure and develop treatments for the world's most deadly diseases and chronic conditions."

The NIH has not had a permanent director since Harold Varmus resigned two years ago to assume a position at the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Ruth Kirschstein has been serving as acting director.