By Peter O'Donnell

BioWorld International Correspondent

BRUSSELS, Belgium - Friends of the Earth Europe is finalizing a report on the implications for agriculture and food policy of the current European Union enlargement exercise, which will bring nearly a dozen former communist countries of central and eastern Europe into membership over the next decade or so.

The report, "EU Enlargement and Genetically Modified Organisms: Chasing a Moving Target," will assess both the impact of enlargement on EU safety, and the impact that joining the EU - and taking on EU rules on biotechnology - will have on the region's food and agriculture industries.

¿ The biotechnology working party of the European Union's Committee for Proprietary Medicinal Products - its top medicines advisory committee - finalized two new guidelines for drug development: a concept paper on xenogenetic cell therapy, and a series of points to consider on the reduction, elimination or substitution of thiomersal in vaccines. The two papers were formally adopted by the CPMP at its late-November meeting, and now are being released for consultation.

¿ The membership of the European pharmaceutical industry's new Emerging Biopharmaceutical Enterprises grouping currently comprises: Baxter, Beaufour-Ipsen, British Biotech, Diosynth, Gencell, Genmab, Genzyme, Medigene, Novo Nordisk, Pharming, Schering AG, Sedac Therapeutics, Schering-Plough, Serono and Xion. Applications are being processed from Biogen, Centocor, American Home Products' Genetics Institute, Human Genome Sciences, Modex and Trophos. Three task forces have been set up and will meet for the first time in January.

¿ The Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Community is launching a report, "Responsible biomedical research: a way forward for Europe," on Thursday. The bishops said, "The rapid evolution of science is especially discernible in biomedicine. A considered reflection on the scientific aspects and the ethical implications has become an urgent necessity." The discussion focuses particularly on the genomic and biological revolution, on questions raised by an ethical approach to genetic testing, and on human embryo research.