Minutes of the meeting held on 21 January 2000
Wed, 17 August 2005
1st Meeting
NUFFIELD COUNCIL ON BIOETHICS
WORKING PARTY ON HEALTH-RELATED RESEARCH
IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
Minutes of the Meeting held at 28 Bedford Square London WC1B 3EG on Friday 21 January 2000
PRESENT
Professor Sir Kenneth Calman (Chairman)
Michael Elves
Shahwar Sadeque
V I Mathan
Nelson Sewankambo
Keith McAdam
Peter Smith
Anne McLaren
SECRETARIAT
Sandy Thomas
Susan Bull
Yvonne Melia
APOLOGIES
Dr David Nabarro, Professor Bhiku Parekh,
Professor Povl Riis, Dr Jaime Sepúlveda
CHAIRMAN’S INTRODUCTION
1 The Chairman welcomed members of the Working Party and emphasised that the Inquiry was considered by the Council to be very important and timely.
BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
2 The Director explained that Working Parties now worked to an 18-month schedule and that this Working Party was scheduled to report in mid 2001. The Chairman was delighted to report that the social anthropologist, Professor David Parkin, had just accepted an invitation to join the Working Party.
3 The draft report would be submitted to Council for comment in January 2001. Council would have ownership of the final report and would approve the text before publication.
4 Other organisations, such as CIOMS, WMA, NIH, WHO and NBAC were also considering issues related to clinical research in developing countries. It was considered important to keep in close contact with the other bodies working in this area.
DRAFT TERMS OF REFERENCE
5 The Working Party was asked to comment on the draft terms of reference A general discussion followed about the precise wording of the draft. The agreed text of the terms of reference are available in the press release dated 17 February 2000.
METHOD OF WORKING AND PROVISIONAL TIMETABLE
6 It was considered important that at least one Working Party meeting be held in a developing country. It was thought that either the October (4th) or December (5th) meeting would be the best opportunity to hold a Working Party meeting in Africa.
7 Discussion then turned to the question of the confidentiality of the Working Party's deliberations. It was emphasised that Working Party members should not discuss the deliberations of the group until the publication of the report.
OUTLINE OF CONTENTS
8 The Working Party was invited to comment on the provisional outline of contents. A general discussion followed about the provisional structure of the report and responsibility for specific chapters.
FACT-FINDING MEETINGS AND PUBLIC CONSULTATION
9 It was agreed that fact-finding meetings would be a very useful addition to Working Party meetings. Professor Dan Wikler from WHO had been invited to speak to the Working Party at the April or June meeting.
10 Previous Working Parties had found the public consultation responses most useful to draw on in their drafting. It was agreed that a public consultation exercise would be very valuable and a draft document would be prepared by the Secretariat for consideration at the next meeting.
DRAFT PRESS ANNOUNCEMENT
11 The draft press announcement was circulated and approved by the Working Party, subject to revisions.
ANY OTHER BUSINESS
12 A form requesting a declaration of interests was circulated to Working Party members which they were asked to complete and return to the Secretariat before the next meeting. A summary of the members’ interests would then be placed on the Council's website.
Last Updated Wed, 17 August 2005