September 2011
Pharmaceutical patents and access to essential medicines in sub-Saharan Africa
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) has reawakened old arguments over the impact of the intellectual property (IP) system on public access to essential medicines. As used here, essential medicines are those needed in symptom management, palliative care, and in the treatment of infections, such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV),...
September 2011
The need for biosafety regulation in developing countries: Benefits and controversies
Nowadays, the rapid development of biotechnology has become a main concern for a larger part of the world. It has become one of the most promising fields which guarantee returns to businesses and offers benefits to the society. When dealing with biotechnology, the first issue that comes to mind is the safeness of the technology from tip to toe, that is, the safeness of the products of biotechnology, how they can be used...
September 2011
Biopiracy and states’ sovereignty over their biological resources
In the last several decades, indigenous communities had to contend with the misappropriation of their biological resources and associated traditional knowledge (TK) through the inappropriate exercise of intellectual property rights (IPRs). The advent of modern biotechnology has intensified this problem leaving indigenous communities increasingly vulnerable. As a counter measure, the Convention on Biological Diversity...
September 2011
Public attitude towards modern biotechnology
This article reviews the literature related to the main idea of the study, rooting from the definition of biotechnology, global status of commercialized biotechnology products, and global and local public attitudes towards modern biotechnology and past models for attitude towards modern biotechnology. The first section of the review will be the in-depth-discussion regarding the definition of modern biotechnology...
September 2011
Risk assessment of genetically modified organisms (GMOs)
Risk assessment is a procedure normally carried out prior to decision-making on the release of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) into the environment. Most countries dealing with the release of GMOs have appropriate guidelines. The objectives of this paper are to critically examine the risk assessment provisions of the Malaysian Biosafety Act (2007), and to compare it with several risk assessment provisions in the...
September 2011
Effect of demographic variables on public attitudes towards genetically modified insulin
Earlier studies on public attitude and risk perception have concluded that the public’s attitudes towards biotechnology was primarily driven by several factors such as familiarity, perceived benefits, perceived risks, risk acceptance, moral concerns and encouragement. Demographic characteristics have been known to affect attitudes towards science. The purpose of this paper is to compare the attitude of the...
September 2011
Ethical perception of modern biotechnology
Past studies have shown that successful development and commercialisation of modern biotechnology products depends heavily on public acceptance. Of the many variables studied by earlier researchers, it was found that moral acceptability was an important predictor of support for biotechnology. The purpose of this paper is to examine the ethical perception of modern biotechnology among the public in the Klang Valley...
September 2011
Awareness and knowledge on modern biotechnology
Biotechnology has been considered as a very important industry in helping Malaysia to achieve its goal of becoming a highly industrialized nation by 2020. Thus, assessment of people’s knowledge and awareness on biotechnology is very important and according to a theory on decision making, people only form attitudes about technologies when they have acquired relevant information. The...
September 2011
Ethical perception of cross-species gene transfer in plant
Plants can be genetically modified through a variety of methods in the hope that it will be improved in some way to increase the yield and quality of a crop, or to add nutritional value or shelf life. The development of genetically modified (GM) rice to enrich its nutritional value, such as Vitamin C might involve gene transfer across different species. The purpose of this paper is to examine how the public in the Klang...
September 2011
Ethical perception of synthetic biology
Modern biotechnology has moved forward by the introduction of the synthetic biology technique. By using synthetic biology, it is possible to construct mice genes in the laboratory and replace the need for the genes to be split out from the original animal. The purpose of this paper is to examine how the public in the Klang Valley region of Malaysia, perceive the ethical aspects of genetically modified (GM) rice which...
September 2011
Risks and benefits of genetically modified foods
There are claims that fear towards new technology has been caused by the lack of information and education on the subject to the public. Modern biotechnology and its applications have been receiving the same criticism. Thus, the objective of this study is to analyze the trends and coverage of genetically modified food (GMF) related issues available in an online database. In order to achieve this, GMF-related articles (n...
September 2011
Ethical perception of human gene in transgenic banana
Transgenic banana has been developed to prevent hepatitis B through vaccination. Its production seems to be an ideal alternative for cheaper vaccines. The objective of this paper is to assess the ethical perception of transgenic banana which involved the transfer of human albumin gene, and to compare their ethical dimensions across several demographic variables. A survey was carried out in the Klang Valley region from...
September 2011
Biotechnology issues in four Malaysian mainstream newspapers
Biotechnology has been identified as the new engine of growth for the transformation of Malaysia into a developed nation by 2020. The objective of this paper is to analyze the impact of National Policy on biotechnology on media reporting in four Malaysian newspapers. Towards this end, a content analysis of four Malaysian mainstream newspapers (that is, Utusan Malaysia, Berita Harian, New Straits Times and The Star) over...
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