- The background principles guiding biomedical research are largely the same and widely agreed on;
- The workshop had identified issues and problems for patients, subjects, and communities, as well as for researchers and institutions;
- The current level of adequacy of existing mechanisms for guaranteeing a high level of ethics in international biomedical research are suboptimal [referring to existing guidelines as well as current informed consent and ethical review mechanisms];
- Significant differences of various kinds in the approach to bioethics exist around the world.

The Global Bioethics Forum was subsequently renamed the Global Forum on Bioethics in Research and it held its first meeting on 7-10 November 1999 in Bethesda, Maryland. The meeting was attended by approximately 120 delegates from 34 countries. The programme focused on developing partnerships between research sponsors, investigators, and research participants and their communities. This meeting concluded that the Forum should be seen as ‘an opportunity to exchange views in an environment that fosters mutual learning’.

This meeting was subsequently followed by a Planning Committee Meeting for the Second Global Forum on Bioethics in Research held at the FIC on 21 March 2000, preceded by a meeting on draft OPRR Procedures to Obtain Assurance for International Research on 20 March 2000 at the FIC. The Planning Committee Meeting discussed the issues to be addressed at the Bangkok meeting.

OPAS Brazil