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Prominent Bioethicists and Academics Highlight BIO 2006 Bioethics Track

WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 14, 2006) -- A group of leading bioethics professionals, academics and thought leaders will be assembled to participate in a variety of panel discussions on bioethics issues that confront the industry at BIO 2006. BIO 2006, the BIO annual international convention, will take place April 9-12 at Chicago’s McCormick Place.

Recognizing that there is more to biotechnology than science and business, BIO 2006 offers considerable programming about the social and ethical implications of applications of biotechnology.

The April 10 Bioethics Track will include these dynamic panels:

The Research Imperative: A Curse or a Cure?

Daniel Callahan, co-founder of The Hastings Center and author of “What Price Better Health? Hazards of the Research Imperative;” Ronald Bailey, science correspondent for Reason magazine, and author of “Liberation Biology: The Scientific and Moral Case for the Biotech Revolution;” Daniel Perry, Executive Director of the Alliance for Aging Research; and C. Boyd Clarke, a biotech executive, will speak frankly about whether there should be any limits to the resources, goals or methods of medical research.

Bioethics at the Cutting Edge
This panel will feature Lori Knowles, Bioethics, Law and Policy Consultant, University of Alberta, Canada; John Robertson, Vinson and Elkins Chair in Law, University of Texas School of Law; Henry Greely, Professor, Law, Stanford Law School; Lori Andrews, Distinguished Professor of Law, Director of the Institute for Science, Law and Technology, Chicago-Kent College of Law; and Simon Best, Chairman, Ardana PLC, in a discussion about whether current systems of governance are adequate to regulate emergent technologies that push the bounds of scientific limits.

Personalized Medicine, Race-Based Drug Development and the Dilemma of, and Ethical Need for, Including Minorities in Clinical Trials
Panelists Osagie Imasogie, Senior Managing Partner, Phoenix IP Ventures; Michael Loberg, President and CEO, NitroMed, Inc.; Sandra Gadson, M.D., President, National Medical Association; and Vanessa Northington Gamble M.D. Ph.D., Director, Tuskegee University National Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care, will discuss the inclusion of minorities in clinical trials and how to best ensure that minorities can avail themselves of the benefits of the coming world of personalized medicine.

Management of Conflicts of Interest
Panelists Edmund Howe, M.D., J.D., Professor, Psychiatry and Director, Programs in Ethics, USUHS; Gary Cohen, MPH student; Michael Werner, President, The Werner Group; T. Forcht Dagi, M.D., MPH, MTS, FACS, FCCM, Managing Partner, Cordova Ventures; and moderator, Elizabeth Price, Attorney, Alston & Bird LLP, will address the characteristics of conflicts that make them disabling or non-disabling and how and when such conflicts can be cured.

Advance media registration for BIO 2006 is now available online. Registration is complimentary for credentialed members of the news media. To register, please visit www.bio.org/events/2006/reg/ . Only reporters and editors working full-time for print or broadcast news organizations may register onsite with valid media credentials. All freelancers and online publications must register in advance by Friday, March 31, 2006. Additional program information may be found online at www.bio.org/events/2006.

BIO represents more than 1,100 biotechnology companies, academic institutions, state biotechnology centers and related organizations across the United States and 31 other nations. BIO members are involved in the research and development of healthcare, agricultural, industrial and environmental biotechnology products.

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