New council of international biotech associations formed

Tuesday, 15 July, 2014

An international confederation of biotechnology trade associations, with membership across six continents, has created the International Council of Biotechnology Associations (ICBA), with the expressed purpose of advocating for public policies that support the global growth of the innovative biotechnology industry.

The council was established during the BIO International Convention and will meet annually at the event in the US. Jim Greenwood, BIO’s president and chief executive officer, was elected ICBA Chairman, and Nathalie Moll, Secretary General of EuropaBio, was elected Vice Chair, each to serve a two-year term.

“The increasingly global biotechnology industry provides breakthrough products and technologies that combat debilitating and rare diseases, reduce our environmental footprint, feed the hungry, use less and cleaner energy, and have safer, cleaner and more-efficient industrial manufacturing processes,” said Greenwood. “However, the biotechnology sector faces both challenges and opportunities that cross borders. In forming the ICBA, our industry is taking an important step that allows us to better coordinate, organise and face these issues around the world together.”

“Biotechnology is geared at enhancing our quality of life and responding to society’s grand challenges such as an ageing and ever-increasing population, healthcare choice and affordability, resource efficiency, food security, climate change, energy shortages and economic growth,” said Moll. “The ICBA will advocate for more efficient and effective governance, science-based regulatory systems and the right framework conditions for competitiveness and innovation to ensure faster and more equitable access to biotech products and processes for patients, farmers and consumers around the world.”

ICBA founding members are as follows: