BIO's Commitment to the Socially Responsible Use of Biotechnology
BIO is committed to the socially responsible use of biotechnology to save or improve lives, improve the quality and abundance of food, and protect our environment. Our board of directors has adopted a Statement of Ethical Principles, and we continue to refine a comprehensive vision of ways to ensure biotechnology is used for the betterment of humankind and not abused.
Ethics
Biotechnology was born under unique social and political circumstances, establishing a precedent that shaped the development of the industry and continues to influence its character even today.
In 1973, a few days after Drs. Herbert Boyer and Stanley Cohen described their successful attempt to recombine DNA from one organism with that of another, a group of scientists responsible for some of the seminal breakthroughs in molecular biology sent a letter to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and the widely read journal Science, calling for a self-imposed moratorium on certain scientific experiments using recombinant DNA technology. The scientists temporarily halted their research and publicly asked others to do the same. Even though they had a clear view of their work's extraordinary potential for good and no evidence of any harm, they were uncertain of the risks some types of experiments posed. They suggested that an international group of scientists from various disciplines meet, share up-to-date information and decide how the global scientific community should proceed. International scientists in this exceptionally competitive field complied with this request to halt certain research.
A few months after the request for a self-imposed moratorium, the scientists sent a second letter, endorsed by the NAS, to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), asking it to establish an advisory committee for evaluating the risks of recombinant DNA, develop procedures to minimize those risks and devise guidelines for research using recombinant DNA. In response to the request, the NIH formed the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee (RAC), which received its official charter in October 1974.
In February 1975, 150 scientists from 13 countries, along with attorneys, government officials and 16 members of the press, met at the Asilomar Conference Center to discuss recombinant DNA work, consider whether to lift the voluntary moratorium and, if so, establish strict conditions under which the research could proceed safely. The conference attendees replaced the moratorium with a complicated set of rules for conducting certain kinds of laboratory work with recombinant DNA, but disallowed other experiments until more was known. The final report of the Asilomar Conference was submitted to the NAS in April 1975, and a conference summary was published in Science and the academy Proceedings on June 6, 1975.
At no other time has the international scientific community voluntarily ceased the pursuit of knowledge before any problems occurred, imposed regulations on itself and been so open with the public.
The NIH-RAC met for the first time hours after the Asilomar conference ended. The committee adopted the conference consensus as interim rules for federally supported laboratories in the United States. It spent the next year developing an initial set of guidelines for recombinant dna molecule research. After public review of the draft guidelines, the RAC published the final version in July 1976. Comparable organizations in other countries promulgated similar guidelines overseeing laboratory research with recombinant DNA. BIO member companies have voluntarily adhered to these guidelines since their inception.
Over the next few years, the RAC revised the guidelines in the face of accumulating data that supported the safety of recombinant DNA laboratory research. Oversight policies of laboratory research in many other countries relaxed as well. During the early 1980s, as the biotechnology industry moved from basic research into product development, the RAC assumed the responsibility of formulating safety standards for industrial manufacturing using recombinant organisms and reviewed proposals voluntarily submitted by companies such as Genentech and Eli Lilly.
As data supporting the safety of recombinant DNA research and product development grew, and biotechnology products moved toward commercialization under the regulatory oversight of the Food and Drug Administration, Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Agriculture, the RAC began to focus more on social and ethical issues, precipitated primarily by the use of recombinant DNA in humans for therapeutic purposes.
Thus, from its inception, the biotech industry has supported public discussion and appropriate regulation of its work.
BIO values the important role the academic scientific community and the RAC have played in the early stages of recombinant DNA research, biotechnology manufacturing and human gene transfer trials. Their approach, supported voluntarily by private and public researchers, ensured the thoughtful, responsible and very public introduction of and discussion about this new technology.
BIO Activities
BIO is committed to the socially responsible use of biotechnology to save or improve lives, improve the quality and abundance of food, and protect our environment. Our board of directors has adopted a Statement of Ethical Principles, and we continue to refine a comprehensive vision of ways to ensure biotechnology is used for the betterment of humankind and not abused.
As our companies develop technologies that promise to benefit humankind, these technologies also may bring ethical questions. To help us examine bioethics issues as they arise, BIO several years ago formed a committee on bioethics.
