the University of i -1 la bam a in Birmingham / ... 
the Medical Center / department of microbiology 
April 5, 1976 
Dr. Donald Fredrickson, Director 
National Institutes of Health 
Bethesda, MD 2; 0014 
Dear Don, 
Many have voiced concerns that institutions in the private sector 
may not adhere to the NIH Guidelines for Recombinant DNA Research and 
the application thereof to problems in medicine, agriculture, etc. 
At the recent NIH Recombinant DNA Molecule Program Advisory Committee 
meeting, I came up with a potential solution to this problem which I 
would like to call to your attention if this has not already been done; 
namely, pharmaceutical and industrial concerns are interested in main- 
tenance of a good public image and are indeed interested in utilizing 
approved EK2 hosts and vectors. In this regard, I have already received 
numerous requests from commercial institutions for a stock of \Yllb. I 
thus propose that NIH assume responsibility for distributing these safer 
EK2 hosts and vectors and in filling requests, obtain a memorandum of 
understanding signed by an appropriate executive officer of the institution 
or by a responsible individual at an academic institutuion prior to distri- 
bution of the strains and vectors. In this manner, NIH could obtain com- 
pliance with its regulations even by those who are not provided with re- 
search funds by NIH. 
Best regards. 
RCIII:kb 
cc: Dr. DeWitt Stetten 
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