How biotechnology companies respond to bioethical issues

Abstract

This paper presents the main findings of a research project that investigated how biotechnology companies in different countries address bioethical issues. The study comprised a questionnaire survey and a series of interviews with international organisations and academics in Japan, Europe and North America. While the research clearly indicated that a number of companies expected to have to address bioethical issues in the future, the results also demonstrated that there was a hesitance to admit that bioethical issues had caused problems in the past. The findings also established that companies responded to bioethical issues in different ways and some of the larger organisations were found to set up ethics committees and educate their employees more effectively on bioethical issues. The respondents were also concerned by the biased or distorted view provided by the media and felt it was important that objective information on this area was provided to the public.