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Green Biotech |
Red Biotech |
White Biotech |
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HEADLINES |
Press Release
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Joint Spanish, Romanian and Portuguese
delegation calls for fairer access to GM
Crops and technologies
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Press Release
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A delegation of farmers from Romania is
travelling to Brussels to convey the
Romanian farmers’ requests to the relevant
European institutions
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EuropaBio
Vacancy -
Green Biotechnology Political Relations
Manager - (GBE)
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EuropaBio feature in Innovation Europe -
BioInnovation 2010
This summer EuropaBio contributed a set of
four articles and a foreword by Secretary
General, Nathalie Moll, to publication
‘Innovation Europe’. The publication is
widely circulated to a broad range of
stakeholders as well as to Brussels-based
and member state decision makers and media.
To
view the articles
click here, or to view our NewsFlash
Special on the document,
click here.
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GREEN BIOTECH |
EU wants to put GMO dispute to an end
The European Commission will today (13 July) propose an overhaul of
the EU's policy for approving genetically modified (GM) crops, which
will allow countries more freedom to ban cultivation on their
territory while retaining an EU-wide authorisation system. The new
policy for GM crop cultivation, to be unveiled today, aims to draw a
line under years of stalemate between countries that support GMOs
and those opposed to their cultivation. The initiative aims to
deliver on a promise made by European Commission President José
Manuel Barroso before his reappointment last year.
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In Europe, a Move to Ease Curbs on Growing Biotech Crops
After decades of pushing nations
to surrender more power to the European Union, the bloc is pulling
back on efforts to assert its authority over one highly contentious
issue, genetically modified foods. On Tuesday, the European
Commission will formally propose giving back to national and local
governments the freedom to decide whether to grow such crops. The
new policy is aimed at overcoming a stalemate that has severely
curtailed the market for biotech seeds in Europe. Only two crops,
produced by the agricultural giant Monsanto and the chemical company
BASF, are sold for cultivation in Europe.
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Hope for farmers in GMO cotton deal
Kenya will commercialise biotech
cotton by 2012, a move that promises good returns for farmers. A
team has been formed to fast-track the process, while a
multinational seed company has been identified to provide
biotechnology seeds to farmers. Biotech stakeholders in Kenya also
expect the National Bio-safety Authority (NBA) to gazette
regulations to guide the sector. The regulations are expected to
spur trials by the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (Kari).
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| RED BIOTECH |
Europe notes reduction in patent deals
between drugmakers
The
European Commission says it is pleased with
the decrease it has seen in “potentially
problematic patent settlements” within the
continent’s pharmaceutical sector. The
Commission has been casting a critical eye
over the industry for the last few years
through a series of raids and an antitrust
probe that ended last July. Drugmakers have
been accused of setting up backhand deals
with the makers of cheaper copycat versions
of their branded medicines to keep them off
the market.
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Biobanking on Europe
German
Researchers are currently drawing up plans
for one of the most ambitious biobanks to
date, a €210 million project involving
200,000 healthy volunteers aged from 20-69
years. While not the largest biobank in
terms of numbers, the German National Cohort
will be set apart by the level of scrutiny
of each subject, which, along with
traditional blood and urine samples, health
assessments and lifestyle questionnaires,
will involve the expensive undertaking of
scanning the brain, heart and other organs
of 40,000 of the subjects, using magnetic
resonance imaging.
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| WHITE BIOTECH |
The age of ethanol
“America's sensible fuel,” reads a TV
advertisement, while a soothing melody plays
in the background. Other ads tout a fuel
that promotes peace and is economical,
home-produced, clean and renewable. So what
is this magic potion? Ethanol, of course.
Growth Energy, a lobby group, is spending
$2.5m on America’s first national television
campaign for the stuff. “No beaches have
been closed due to ethanol spills,” one ad
notes. Growth Energy planned the campaign
before the BP disaster, but the push could
hardly be better timed.
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BIO video interviews on
industrial biotech
The green blog is
still editing its own video interviews taken
at the BIO World Congress on Industrial
Biotechnology and Bioprocessing conference.
For now, here are videos provided by BIO,
which shows what's on the minds of several
companies about this growing profitable
world of industrial biotechnology.
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SME/NAC |
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EuropaBio Launches New SME Centre
Website Section
If
you haven't already seen the new SME
Centre on the EuropaBio website, now is
the time to have a look! The SME Centre
has been completely updated with news,
and links to a wealth of information,
and should prove to be a useful resource
for Biotech SMEs.
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