Italian govt upbeat on biotech strategy

Italy's Health Minister, Girolamo Sirchia, has told a biotechnologyconference in Rome that public institutions must work on "disorientated public opinion" to underline the benefits of biotechnology, while Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said, in a pre-conference letter to delegates, that it was his task to give the public guarantees that "the rights of all are to be respected and defended" in relation to biotechnology advances.

Mr Berlusconi told the meeting, which was organized by the biotechnology industry association Assobiotec, that the government would ensure R&D was undertaken in a free atmosphere and projected internationally to generate added value from product licenses.

This undertaking pleased Assobiotec president Sergio Dompe, who said the industry had been disappointed by the previous administration, and called on the new regime to overcome the problems that had hindered biotechnology development and innovation and to promote and support strong R&D activity in Italy. Mr Dompe stressed that Italy has a lot of catching-up to do, with only 50 biotechnology companies, compared with 270 in the UK, 220 in Germany and 140 in France.