France Biotech announces its 5th Bioethics Forum

Oct 22 2009

France Biotech, the French association of life science businesses and their partners (www.france-biotech.org) today announced that its 5^th Bioethics Forum (organized in collaboration with the Eurobiomed cluster) will take place on Friday, December 11^th, at the Musée du Carre d’Art venue in Nîmes.

Today, new treatments rely primarily on the pharmaceutical development of new chemical or biological entities. Even though pharmaceutical industry R&D budgets continue to increase in both Europe and North America, the number of new therapeutics that reach the market has fallen well short of what could be expected of these levels of investment.

The development of complex bioprostheses is one of the most promising new approaches in medicine and should be a valuable addition to the physician's therapeutic arsenal. This field leverages progress in computing, chemistry, mechanical engineering, information technology and biotechnology. France Biotech and Eurobiomed wish to anticipate the ethical issues linked to the arrival of these new, intelligent medical devices.

As in previous editions, the Nîmes Bioethics Forum will enable life science company managers to meet and dialogue with a panel of experts (philosophers, healthcare professionals, etc.) in order to identify ethical questions raised by medical applications of these new technologies and thus to plan their device development in accordance with ethical principles.

One practical goal for the biotech stakeholders attending the Forum is to update the ethical principles in France Biotech's Ethical Code of Practice.

France Biotech and its members intend to continue their initiatives in this field by issuing and defending clear, independent points of view based on the evaluation and regular updating of scientific, technological and societal data.

One of Eurobiomed's missions is the socially responsible development of the healthcare sector. The cluster has decided to co-organize the Bioethics Forum with France Biotech so that its members can become proactive stakeholders in this field.