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The participants at the February meeting were especially concerned 
that there be guidelines for DNA recombinant research not supported 
or conducted by the NIH. There was general agreement that the NIH 
should undertake to disseminate information on the guidelines as 
widely as possible to governmental agencies and the private sector 
that support recombinant research. I held a meeting with relevant 
agencies in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare and with 
representatives from other departments of the Federal Government. 
A number of the representatives indicated that various departments 
might well adopt the guidelines where applicable. 
Our meeting on June 2, similarly, will serve as an important beginning 
to determine the present or future interests of industrial laboratories 
in this type of research. I would welcome any information that you 
might have on ongoing DNA recombinant research. Further, at the meeting, 
I have arranged for a brief presentation on how the NIH intends to 
implement these guidelines. Your views on their applicability to your 
company and the private sector generally would be most helpful. The 
NIH is also considering the establishment of a voluntary registry of 
investigators and their institutions engaged in such research, and I 
would be most interested in your views on possible industry participation 
in this program. 
I look forward to meeting you. I have enclosed a copy of the agenda 
book that was prepared for the participants at the Director's Advisory 
Committee meeting in February. It contains the initially proposed 
guidelines and supplementary material on the science of recombinant 
research and the potential benefits and hazards. When the final 
guidelines are released in mid-June, I will have sent to you copies of 
them and my decision. 
Sincerely yours, 
/s/ 
Donald S. Fredrickson, M.D. 
Director 
Enclosure 
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