Human biological samples (including solid tissue, biofluids and their derivatives) play a vital role in our research, helping us to build a deeper understanding of human disease processes and their underlying mechanisms.

Studying changes at the molecular and cellular level in human biological samples makes it possible to relate the patient's symptoms to the disease processes. This in turn increases the likelihood of effective new medicines being developed to treat diseases that currently are either poorly treated or do not have suitable treatments.

Human tissue is used to predict the likely effectiveness of a potential new medicine and to identify some of the possible unwanted effects. It is valuable, therefore, in the drug discovery process by enabling earlier and better predictions about the effectiveness and safety of a new compound.

AstraZeneca supports robust international legislation and ethical guidelines, and we have policies and processes in place to ensure that donated human biological samples are handled in a highly responsible and ethical manner. This places emphasis on the principles of informed consent, designed to protect the rights and expectations of donors and families, whilst enabling an environment in which important medical research can flourish.

In line with our Bioethics Policy, we have established processes that cover the acquisition, use, storage and disposal of human biological samples that are used in our human tissue research. Central to these processes is our endorsement of international standards that require human biological samples to be obtained only with the approval of an independent ethics committee, and with the fully informed consent of the donor (or their appointed representative). Supplier and collaborator evaluation are also an essential aspect of our policy. To maintain best practice, we continue to develop and refine these processes and apply them through on-going education, training, monitoring and assessment programmes for employees, suppliers and collaborators.

The content of this page was externally assured by Bureau Veritas, February 2008