ROCHE INSTITUTE OF MOLECULAR BIOLOGY 
N UTLEY, NEW JERSEY 07110 
January 5, 1978 
Dr. Donald S. Fredrickson 
Office of the Director 
National Institutes of Health 
Bldg. 1 Room 124 
Bethesda, Maryland 20014 
Dear Don: 
I regret not being able to attend the Director's Advisory Committee Meeting 
on December 15-16, 1977 concerning the "Proposed Revisions to the NIH Guide- 
lines for Research on Recombinant DNA". I am informed, however, that your 
records will be kept open for an additional 30 days, and I am therefore 
taking this opportunity to offer my comments. 
I understand from Dr. Ann Skalka's report to me concerning the meeting, from 
Nicholas Wade's report in Science (Jan. 6), and from following developments 
over the last several months that the modest changes suggested in the "Pro- 
posed Revisions" are certainly justified on scientific grounds. Despite 
suggestions made at the meeting on possible procedural changes which may be 
employed in future revisions, I urge you to adopt the present revisions as 
expeditiously as possible. The reasons are twofold: 
First : The concept of continuous "updating" was an integral part of the orig- 
inal guidelines. Indeed, this process was, I believe, to take place annually. 
It appears that almost two full years will have passed before even the current 
modest revisions will take effect. Such delay is surely not in the best in- 
terest of science, or the credibility desired by the NIH in its leadership 
role in the area. 
Second : As you know, several state and local governments (including the 
State of New Jersey) are currently developing their own legislation in this 
area. Similar Federal action may take place in this session of Congress. 
These laws will be based, for the most part, on the version of the Guide- 
lines currently in effect. It is important that these laws include the 
most updated version possible. 
Please feel free to call on me if you should need any help in your delibera- 
tions on this matter. 
Sincerely yours, 
Sidney Udenfriend, Ph.D. 
Director 
SU : sa 
[Appendix A — 193] 
