Merck Establishes Expert Advisory Panel for Bioethical Issues
Merck Bioethics Advisory Panel to help ensure high bioethical standards
Merck KGaA announced that in bioethical matters, it will be advised by a committee of renowned experts. The Merck bioethics Advisory Panel will regularly provide the company with recommendations on how to take bioethical aspects into account when discovering and developing new products and processes. In addition, the panel will support Merck in addressing topics related to bioethics, such as integrity, sustainability and legal compliance. The expert panel met in Wiesbaden, Germany, for the first time with Merck staff to discuss opinions and positions on current topics.
Biotechnological and biomedical research is of central importance to Merck. In 2010, the Merck Serono division generated 61% of its sales with its five top-selling biopharmaceuticals. The Merck Bioethics Advisory Panel comprises three American, two German and one Swiss experts: Professor Dena S. Davis (Professor of Law at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law in Cleveland, Ohio, USA), Professor Jeanne Loring (Founding Director of the Center for Regenerative Medicine at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, USA), Professor Jeremy Sugarman (Professor of Bioethics and Medicine at Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics in Baltimore, Maryland, USA), Professor Jochen Taupitz (Managing Director of the Institute for German, European and International Medical Law, Health Law and Bioethics at the Universities of Heidelberg and Mannheim), Professor Nikolaus Knoepffler (Chair of the Applied Ethics department at the University of Jena) and Professor Christoph Rehmann-Sutter (Professor of Theory and Ethics in the Biosciences at the Institute for Medical History and Scientific Research at the University of Luebeck).
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