Stem cell research & human cloning

We believe that stem cell research may offer new opportunities to develop innovative and safer medicines.

As a company whose success is built on leading-edge science, we continuously monitor and assess new research capabilities to identify opportunities that could help us deliver better medicines for patients worldwide.  We believe that human embryonic stem cell research may present such an opportunity.

Because this is a relatively new area for us and because we do not yet have all the necessary skills and technologies in-house, we are working with external partners who have the capabilities and expertise and an ethical commitment consistent with our own.  Some significant progress has been made, with some promising results, but more work is needed to understand the full potential of this type of research.

AstraZeneca is one of nine partners in a European Framework Research VI programme, and is a founding member of a public-private partnership in the UK, Stem Cells for Safer Medicines, which brings together academia, government and members of the pharmaceutical industry to broaden the approach to understanding this complex area of research.

THE POTENTIAL BENEFITS

Our interest is in the potential of cells from human embryonic stem cell lines to differentiate into normal human cells, such as hepatocytes (liver cells) and cardiac myocytes (heart muscle cells). If this were possible, such cells could be used to evaluate what effect a potential new medicine has on the normal cell, and to provide a more accurate prediction of drug metabolism and safety profiles in man. We believe this would represent a significant step forward in increasing the human relevance of studies at an earlier stage of development of a potential new medicine and would help us to overcome the current limitations that a restricted supply of normal cells presents.

ENSURING HIGH STANDARDS

Our commitment to ensuring high ethical standards in this area of research is reflected in our Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research Policy framework, as set out in our Bioethics Policy, which demands compliance both with external legislation, regulations and guidelines, and with our own codes of practice.

The framework applies to all internal work and external research on AstraZeneca’s behalf and includes essential criteria that must be met before any such research is undertaken. Similar to those that govern inclusion in public stem cell registries such as the UK Registry and the US National Institute of Health Registry, these criteria require that the stem cells must have been derived from a fertilised egg that was created for reproductive purposes; that the fertilised egg must no longer be needed for these purposes, and that fully informed consent (with no financial inducements) must have been obtained for the donation of the fertilised egg for scientific research.

The framework is designed to ensure that all research effort in this area remains consistent with our strategy of developing more effective, safer medicines for serious disease.

We are not involved, or expressing any interest in genetic modification or cloning of human embryonic stem cells to repair damaged or diseased tissue.

HUMAN REPRODUCTIVE CLONING

AstraZeneca is not involved in any research on human reproductive cloning on which there is an international ban as set out by UNESCO and most national legislations.

The content of this page was externally assured by Bureau Veritas, February 2009.