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International Congress on Biosafety, Biosecurity and Biodefense

From 18th through 20th July 2011 the International Congress on Biosafety, Bio security and Biodefense took place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Under the lead of the Malaysian government the program was developed by government agencies such as the National Security Council, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Science and Technology Research Institute (Ministry of Defence), Institute for Medical Research (Ministry of Health) and Department of Veterinary Services (Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry).

For the organization there has been established a new partnership between PROTEMP Group and beta seminare bonn berlin, who joint to ensure the professional execution of the congress as well as the accompanying industrial exhibition with companies from all over the world.

The event brought together an outstanding selection of over 400 BioSSD global experts to discuss the practices, challenges, and strategies of BioSSD in the region. The BioSSD International Congress 2011 is in its second series and now covers Asia Pacific, adding the matters of biodefense to its key itinerary of contents.

With 10 Plenary and 6 Breakout Sessions featuring 29 internationally re - nowned BioSSD experts, the conference covered the following topics: “Outreach & Implementation of Biorisk Management in Life Sciences”, “Bioterrorism: The Work Must Go On”, “Emerging Infectious Threats to Agriculture & Environmental Biosecurity”, “Accreditation and Certification of High Bio-containment Facilities”, “Policies & Strategies in Preventing Misuse of Biological Agents” and “Risk Communications”.

Over 40 outstanding international speakers like H.E. Ambassador Paul van den Ijssel from the Biological Weapon Convention Netherland, Simon Limage, from the US Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation, Dr Keith Hamilton from the World Animal Health Organization (OIE) in France, or Dr. Chua Teck Mean from the Asia Pacific Biosafety Association, were giving an overview over the actual Status quo of Bio-Security and Bio- Safety.

The congress was officially opened by the Malaysian Defense Minister Datuk Seri Abdul Zahid Hamidi. Reading out a message from the Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, he presented a draft of a new bill to protect the country from possible use of biochemical entities for biological warfare. This draft will be a part of Malaysia's legislative framework in ensuring the effective implementation of biological weapons convention, said.

According to the prime minister, the government was confident that the resulting legal framework would facilitate a secure and safe regime in handling hazardous biological materials.

At the same time, it would ensure that the requirements did not short change and demotivate life sciences researchers, advocates and business entities in the country.

Najib also said the government was also seeking input and feedback on how it could accelerate biotechnology development while ensuring that biosafety and biosecurity concerns were addressed and taken into account.

He said that besides detection of disease outbreak as well as up-to-date laboratory analysis, emergency response and communication systems, there was also a need to put in place international collaboration to effectively combat bio threats.

He admitted that the country's bio defence science and response capabilities needed improvements, saying there was a “striking insufficiency in vaccines and therapeutics.”

Najib also called on countries to identify appropriate methods, plans and procedures in establishing and executing defensive measures against either natural occurrence or attacks using biological agents.

“Bio defence responsiveness is a na ti - onal and international security matter as bio threat could take place at any time,” he noted.

He added that although no state had used a biological weapon in battle since the end of World War II, a number of subnational groups had attempted to acquire and use such weapons in attacks against civilians.

The bill is expected to be presented to the Attorney-General's Chambers by the second half of 2012.

Following this concise introduction to the conference, an initial workshop on the first day about “Designing and Sustaining a Functional BSL 3 Facility” was pointing out the urgent need to build and operate high-containment biosafety laboratories (BSL-3), regarding the increased risks emanating from emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases in the Asia-Pacific.

A second workshop about Biorisk Management explained the system and process to control safety and security risks associated with the handling or storage and disposal of biological agents and toxins in laboratories and facilities. BRM is a management approach based on the concept of continual improvement and enables an organization to effectively identify, monitor and control laboratory biosafety and biosecurity aspects of its activities.

All in all the congress was a full success and hit the right time and place in the international Biosafety context. It is planned that there will be a follow up congress soon.

beta seminare bonn berlin is also organizing the Industry Exhibition at the Medical Biodefense Conference of the German Bundeswehr, which will take place on October 26-28, 2011 in Munich. JHW
 

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