BIO Deutschland Recommends Regulations on Data Processing in Medical Research

BIO Deutschland, the sector association of the biotechnology industry, recommends that the special features of the healthcare sector be taken into account in the revision of the Data Protection Directive (95/46/EC). This includes the current draft of Article 20 by the Federal Ministry of the Interior aimed at introducing legal regulations on the gathering, collating and scanning of personal data to form a profile (profiling). In a statement on the proposal by the Federal Ministry of the Interior, BIO Deutschland suggested that clarifying rules should be introduced by which profiling for medical, biotechnological and pharmaceutical purposes is permitted, as this is the only way that valuable medical data can be evaluated properly. Patients’ legitimate interests could continue to be protected under such rules.