10 June 2021

First Asian Bioethics Network Meeting held on 10 June 2021

Summary of inaugural Meeting

The first Asian Bioethics Network (ABN) meeting was held on 10 June 2021 in conjunction with BAC’s 20th Anniversary Event, which also comprised a virtual public conference held on 17 and 18 June 2021.
The ABN meeting was chaired by Mr Charles Lim, BAC member and Singapore’s representative to UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Bioethics Committee (IGBC) for the 2018-2021 term.
At the meeting, the BAC shared its proposal to establish the Asian Bioethics Network, and also heard representatives from the different countries share their national bioethics committees’ work, achievements, latest developments, as well as emerging bioethical issues in their countries.
The meeting was supportive of BAC’s proposal to establish an Asian Bioethics Network and agreed to:
1. Hold regular meetings between members in the network
2. Establish a website to facilitate sharing of resources and knowledge exchange to enable each country to share their publications, reports and public education programmes with other members of the network
Singapore’s BAC will take lead in establishing the ABN website.

BAC Attendees (as of 10 June 2021)

S/N	Name	Designation	Remarks
1	Professor Kon Oi Lian	Deputy Chair
2	Mr Charles Lim	Member	Meeting Chair
3	Associate Professor Lim Tit Meng	Member
4	Mr Gregory Vijayendran	Member
5	Professor Lee Eng Hin	Member
6	Dr Nazirudin Bin Mohd Nasir	Member
7	Associate Professor Roy Joseph	Member
8	Professor Tan Sor Hoon	Member
9	Professor Vineeta Sinha	Member

Ministry of Health, Singapore (MOH) Attendees (as of 10 June 2021)

S/N	Name	Designation
1	Dr Lee Wei Liang	Director, Regulatory Policy & Legislation (RPL)
2	Dr Tiong Wei Wei	Deputy Director, Bioethics Advisory Committee Secretariat (BACS)/ Regulatory Policy Precision Medicine & Research (PM&R)
3	Dr Durkeshwari Anbalagan-Raj	Assistant Director, BACS/PM&R
4	Mr Nicholas Wong	Senior Manager, BACS
5	Mr Louis Hor	Manager, BACS
6	Ms Toh Si Min	Executive, RPL
7	Ms Germaine Goh	Executive, BACS
8	Mr Teo Guoy Siang	Executive, BACS

International Attendees (as of 10 June 2021)

S/N	Country	Name	Professional Designation
1	Australia	Ms Prue Torrance	Executive Director, Research Quality and Priorities Branch, National Health and Medical Research Council
2	Australia	Dr Jeremy Kenner	Expert Advisor Ethics, National Health and Medical Research Council
3	Bhutan	Dr Neyzang Wangmo	Chairperson, Research Ethics Board of Health, Ministry of Health, Bhutan; and Director, Medical Education Centre for Research, Innovation and Training
4	Myanmar	Dr Theingi Thwin	Director, Research (Ret.), Department of Medical Research (DMR); and Member, DMR Ethical Institutional Review Board
5	Nepal	Professor Dr Prakash Ghimire	Chairperson, Ethical Review Board, Nepal Health Research Council, Nepal; Ethics Consultant, WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific; and Professor, Central Department of Microbiology (Institute of Science and Technology), Tribhuvan University
6	Nepal	Ms Namita Ghimire	Research Officer, Ethical Review Board, Nepal Health Research Council, Nepal
7	New Zealand	Associate Professor Neil Pickering	Chair, National Ethics Advisory Committee; and Associate Professor, Bioethics Centre, University of Otago
8	New Zealand	Mr Nic Aagard	Acting Manager, Secretariat of the National Ethics Advisory Committee, Ministry of Health, New Zealand
9	Sri Lanka	Professor Anoja Indrakanthi Fernando	Emeritus Professor, Pharmacology, University of Ruhuna Vice Chair and Rapporteur, UNESCO International Bioethics Committee (IBC)
10	Vietnam	Associate Professor Le Thi Thu Hien	Deputy Director, Institute of Genome Research, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology; and Associate Editor, Vietnam Journal of Biotechnology