EFPIA Urges MEPs To Back Biotech Directive

The European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries Associations hasurged Members of the European Parliament to support the draft European Directive on the legal protection of biotechnological inventions (see also page 11), which has its first reading in the European Parliament this week (July 16).

The draft Directive does not create new legislation, but seeks to harmonize existing European law in this area. A previous draft Directive was rejected by the parliament two years ago (Marketletter March 20, 1995), following MEPs' concerns over a perceived lack of ethical safeguards.

The new compromise draft agreed by the parliament's Legal Affairs Committee aims to deal with these concerns by prohibiting any patenting relating to: the mere discovery of elements of the human body; the human body in its various stages of development; procedures for human reproductive cloning; and patenting of human germ-line therapy. It would also require that, for transgenic animals to be patented, evidence must be provided to show that the benefit to human beings would outweigh suffering to the animals. The new draft would also establish a European Ethics Advisory Committee.