paris

Europe's biotechnology industry is seeking to improve its image by setting up a committee of independent experts to advise it on ethical issues and to draft a code of conduct for its members.

The committee is the initiative of EuropaBio, an industry association representing about 600 biotechnology companies and 11 national biotechnology industry associations. Andrew Dickson, the secretary general of the organization, says that the industry felt it “needed not just to be acting responsibly but to be seen to be acting responsibly”.

EuropaBio has not yet decided on the final form of the committee. It says it would provide a secretariat but that the eight to ten members of the committee would need to be — and to be seen to be — independent of industry, with complete freedom in their activities. Dickson says EuropaBio is contemplating asking neutral bodies to help to nominate the members, who would be paid only expenses.

The ethics committee would be modelled on the European Commission's expert advisory group on biotechnology ethics, which is chaired by Noëlle Lenoir, a member of the French constitutional council.

EuropaBio last week issued a draft “core set of ethical values”, which it has made available for public comment (website: http://www.europa-bio.be) and to which its member companies will be expected to adhere. This would be revised regularly to take into account scientific progress and changes in public perception.

Dickson says it is important for the industry to take the temperature of “the boundaries which society believes are acceptable” and to act within these if it is to win public acceptance.

The current draft of the code of ethics rejects the use of cloning to reproduce human beings, arguing that this reflects the current consensus. But Jurgen Drews, chairman of EuropaBio and president of research at Hoffmann-La Roche, points out that this consensus may change.

The code also commits member companies not to work on genes of human sperm, eggs or germline cells. It proposes a moratorium on work on the genes of human embryos “until the medical, ethical, and societal issues that may arise from this kind of therapy have been publicly discussed, clarified and resolved and, if applicable, put into legislation”.