Biotech Law of Iran, The Need for a Comprehensive Law
Introduction
Let us start this News & Analysis with the following paragraph taken from Céline Lafontaine‟s book titled „Le Corps-Marché‟ published by Édition du Seuil in April 2014 (at page 246):
“Un article du Monde intitule »Médicament: épidémie de pénuries«, paru en novembre 2013, tirait la sonnette d‟alarme sur le fait que la course aux profits qui gouverne l‟industrie biopharmaceutique a maintenant des répercussions directes sur l‟accès aux traitements pour certains patients au sein même des pays développés.”
What is the situation in Iran? How the biotech industry is developed? Are the existing biosafety laws, policies, and practical measures sufficient and satisfactory? And finally, is there a comprehensive legal system that can help manage different aspects of biotechnology activities in Iran?
It is not easy to give clear and satisfying responses to the above questions because the biotech law of Iran is in its infancy phase. It is true that few initiatives to draft and devise a comprehensive law and strategy are undertaken by different public entities but at the end of the day, a deep gap exists between the current biotech law of Iran and similar laws in the legal systems of the EU, the US, and Canada. This News & Analysis is the summary of a paper prepared to raise and analyse the above questions.