BioWorld International Correspondent

BRUSSELS, Belgium - The European Union has banned imports of long-grain rice from the U.S. because of a contamination scare over Bayer's experimental genetically modified LL Rice 601. An Aug. 25 meeting of EU member state experts agreed that only U.S. long grain rice that is certified as free from Bayer's unauthorized rice can enter the EU.

Concerns in Europe flared after U.S. authorities revealed Aug. 18 that traces of the Bayer product - trialed in the U.S. until 2001 - had been found in U.S. rice stocks. On Aug. 23, EU officials adopted an interim emergency decision to stop unauthorized genetically modified organisms entering the EU. They decided that any imports of long grain rice from the U.S. had to be certified as free from the unauthorized rice. With immediate effect, only consignments of U.S. long grain rice that have been tested by an accredited laboratory using a validated testing method and accompanied by a certificate assuring the absence of LL Rice 601 will be allowed to enter the EU.

Commissioner Markos Kyprianou, the European Union's senior official for health and consumer protection, said, "We have strict legislation in place in the EU to ensure that any GM product put on the European market has undergone a thorough authorization procedure based on scientific assessment. There is no flexibility for unauthorized GMOs. These cannot enter the EU food and feed chain under any circumstances." Under EU food safety legislation, only GMOs that have undergone scientific assessment and authorization procedure may be put on the EU market.

The measures were endorsed Aug. 25 by an emergency session of the EU's standing committee on the food chain and animal health. They will remain in force for at least six months. EU member states are being urged by the EU authorities to step up controls on imports at their borders to prevent any contaminated consignments from reaching the market, and to carry out controls on products already on the market, to ensure that they are free from the unauthorized product. Consignments without a certificate will be either returned to the U.S. or destroyed.

Biotech industry executives in Europe have expressed concerns that the EU action might be disproportionate. They pointed out privately that although the extent to which the U.S. supply chain has been contaminated still is unknown, the EU has gone ahead immediately with emergency measures.

But environmental groups welcomed the announcement and underlined what they saw as further evidence of the risks of biotechnology. Adrian Bebb, GM food campaigner for Friends of the Earth Europe, said, "This disturbing incident is yet another warning of the dangers of genetically modified crops, and shows that consumer opposition to this technology is completely justified."

Bayer meanwhile has decided to request authorization for LL 601 rice in the U.S., where an investigation is ongoing as to how and to what extent the unauthorized GM entered the supply chain.

The U.S. is a major supplier of rice to the EU, with an average of 20,000 tons a month. At present, no GM rice is authorized in the EU for food and feed use or for cultivation or import, but the European Food Safety Authority is examining an application for authorization of Bayer's genetically modified LL Rice 62, which contains the same modified protein as the unauthorized product.

Genetic Testing Reveals Exotic Bluetongue Disease

Genetic testing at the European Union's reference laboratory in Pirbright, UK, revealed that the current outbreak of bluetongue disease among sheep in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany is due to a strain of the virus never before reported in Europe. The EU authorities reported Aug. 28 that first results suggest the bluetongue virus serotype 8 is of a sub-Saharan lineage, although the precise origin is not yet known, and neither is the way in which it was introduced into Europe. Precautionary measures have been put into force in the affected areas.

Europe's Firms Plan To Boost Research Spending

European companies are set to increase their research and development investment by an average of 5 percent over the next three years, according to a survey released Aug. 23 by the European Union. The results were greeted as "encouraging" by Janez Potocnik, European commissioner for science and research, who is leading a campaign to raise overall research spending across the European Union to 3 percent of GDP.

"We need increased investment by the private sector," he said, adding, "To make Europe an attractive place for companies to carry out their research, the EU will be coming forward with some more ideas in autumn 2006."

Oncomethylome: Schering-Plough Deal 'On Track'

OncoMethylome Sciences, of Liege, Belgium, announced Aug. 24 that Schering-Plough Corp., of Kenilworth, N.J., had approved its plans to sub-contract BRT Laboratories, of Maryland, as a clinical trial testing facility. Now, it said, it can start to provide testing services for clinical trials that are an important component of the collaboration. The event triggered a milestone payment for OncoMethylome Sciences, which also will qualify to receive ongoing sample processing fees. The Maryland laboratory will be using OncoMethylome Sciences' patent-protected assay to evaluate the methylation status of the MGMT gene in DNA extracted from brain tumor cells. The tumor samples will originate from the multicenter brain cancer clinical trial conducted by the U.S.-based Radiation Therapy Oncology Group and the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer, and supported by Schering-Plough. Herman Spolders, CEO of OncoMethylome Sciences, said, "I am happy that our cornerstone pharmacogenomics test is utilized in a large clinical trial."