To the editor:

The American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) would like to clarify statements in an news article by K.S. Jayaraman published in the September issue of Nature Biotechnology (23, 1031, 2005) entitled “Materials exchange deal meager boost to India's biotech.” The article describes mid-June discussions between a delegation of US Department of Commerce officials, led by acting deputy secretary David Sampson, and a delegation from India led by science minister Kapil Sibal.

The article suggests the two groups reached agreement on a proposal to govern the transfer of biological material from the United States to India. The proposal seems to mention ATCC specifically: “Under the plan,” the article states, “India's Department of Biotechnology would procure biological materials from the American Type Tissue [sic] Collection (ATCC) and warrant against their misuse or subsequent acquisition by bioterrorists, with safeguards and export controls similar to those around nuclear technology.”

ATCC would like to notify the scientific community that no ATCC representative was invited to attend the Department of Commerce's meeting with the India delegation and ATCC is not aware of any specific agreement made by the US Federal Government with India or any other country for obtaining biological materials from ATCC. Aside from the fact that an agreement was apparently made without ATCC's involvement, firmly established policies at ATCC block any type of exclusive relationships with individual countries. Furthermore, for decades, and continuing today, Indian scientists registered with our organization have been welcome to order products from ATCC for their research.

The article also mentions that Indian scientists have experienced “problems working with” ATCC. Our records indicate that all orders from registered scientists in India have been successfully filled. ATCC is glad to provide its high-quality research materials to Indian scientists. All of ATCC's rules, shipping policies or pricing schemes are applied to all countries equally. In no way does ATCC restrict access to its collection for registered scientists in India or another country.