What Are Consumers Looking For In Dark Chocolate?

In this paper, we conduct a conjoint analysis to measure the relative importance of attributes of dark chocolate brand, country of origin, certification, cacao content in the formation of consumers preferences. Results show that the cacao content is the most important attribute

From Embryo Research to Therapy

Note from the Inserm Ethics Committee. "Embryo and Developmental Research" grou

De la recherche à la thérapie embryonnaire

Notes du ComitéTravaux du groupe "Embryon et Développement

Research on Embryos and Embryonic Models for Scientific Use (EMSUs)

Note from the Ethics Committee 'Embryo and Developemental" Grou

Clinical Research: Access to Potential Participants Pre-Enrollment: Staying One Step Ahead?

Note from the Ethics committee. "Research with Direct Access to Patients" Group.At the World Economic Forum in Davos, the CEO of Novartis had declared that the sources of innovation were found in digital solutions, particularly those concerning clinical trial enrollment. In a world in which research is competitive, having access to patients is critical, essential and inescapable. The stakes, therefore, are high.Any organization of a clinical trial able to facilitate patient enrollment will enable faster, more reliable and probably more representative responses to the questions being studied. An undeniable advantage when it comes to addressing patient needs faster and better, and in cases of rare diseases can even be a necessity.We consider the enrollment process to have two distinct phases. One is formal and strictly supervised, at least in France, in which the investigating physician explains the research, invites the patient to take part and, if they accept, obtains their written enlighten consent. The second, which occurred first, less formal phase involves identifying a potentially eligible and interested individual, providing them with informal information about an existing protocol and, if they agree, referring them to the investigating physician. In traditional clinical research organization, this pre-enrollment phase is generally handled by the investigators themselves and the two phases under the responsibility of the same actor. With the new technologies offering patients more choice, it is our hypothesis that other players could set their sights on the upstream phase and as such influence the directions that patients take.Therefore, the key question is: in the future, how will protocols be chosen and the participants informed?At this stage in the enrollment process, we consider it essential and urgent both from a methodological and ethical point of view to continue to educate patients about what research is and means. Patient associations play and will continue to play a critical role in that – something that the pharmaceutical companies and some academic researchers have already understood and taken into account

Differing Patterns of Liver Disease Progression and Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) Quasispecies Evolution in Children Vertically Coinfected with HCV and Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) quasispeciation was studied in two children vertically coinfected with HCV and human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1). HCV quasispecies diversification and liver injury were more significant in patient C1, who was immunocompetent with anti-HIV therapy, than in patient C2, who was immunosuppressed, in consistency with modulation of HCV quasispeciation and liver injury by immunocompetence in coinfected children

Guidelines for reporting secondary findings of genome sequencing in cancer genes: the SFMPP recommendations

IF 3.636 (2017)International audienceIn oncology, the expanding use of multi-gene panels to explore familial cancer predisposition and tumor genome analysis has led to increased secondary findings discoveries (SFs) and has given rise to important medical, ethical, and legal issues. The American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics published a policy statement for managing SFs for a list of genes, including 25 cancer-related genes. Currently, there are few recommendations in Europe. From June 2016 to May 2017, the French Society of Predictive and Personalized Medicine (SFMPP) established a working group of 47 experts to elaborate guidelines for managing information given on the SFs for genes related to cancers. A subgroup of ethicists, lawyers, patients’ representatives, and psychologists provided ethical reflection, information guidelines, and materials (written consent form and video). A subgroup with medical expertise, including oncologists and clinical and molecular geneticists, provided independent evaluation and classification of 60 genes. The main criteria were the “actionability” of the genes (available screening or prevention strategies), the risk evaluation (severity, penetrance, and age of disease onset), and the level of evidence from published data. Genes were divided into three classes: for class 1 genes (n = 36), delivering the information on SFs was recommended; for class 2 genes (n = 5), delivering the information remained questionable because of insufficient data from the literature and/or level of evidence; and for class 3 genes (n = 19), delivering the information on SFs was not recommended. These guidelines for managing SFs for cancer-predisposing genes provide new insights for clinicians and laboratories to standardize clinical practices