Biobanking within the European regulatory framework: opportunities and obstacles

A common feature of the European ethical and legal regulatory framework is that biobank-based research has a significant potential of providing new benefits to European citizens in terms of new medical treatment, and this research is therefore something that should be promoted. At the same time the legislatures are concerned, and rightly so, about the integrity of patients and healthy volunteers who provide samples and data. There is now ample evidence of how biobank-based research has provided great opportunities for new care. At the same time there are a growing number of reports about rash judgments about integrity by ethical review boards and data inspection authorities that are not in the best interest of patients. It is here argued that legislatures, ethical review boards, and data inspection authorities need to adopt a wider view of integrity and take into consideration the patients' interest in a sound scientific basis for medical diagnosis and treatment.