was founded in 1980 in Freiburg in Breisgau, Germany by a private, individual initiative and is oriented on the guidelines of the USA Review Boards;
is the first and oldest privately organised ethics commission in Germany, and most likely in Europe as well;
offers, in accordance with the statutes from 1980, the following services:
interdisciplinary, expert review of clinical studies conducted with and on human subjects which takes into account the ethical, legal and medical/scientific issues necessary to protect the trial subjects - independent of sponsors, trial doctors and institutions - ;
has been comprised of medical and non-medical experts since the very beginning of its formation;
since it began its work, the commission has met every Monday with at minimum five members to orally review the submitted documents:
- Study protocol, informed consent and further required documents - ;
is able to look back on a large number of reviews for drug and medical product studies and has, therefore a great deal of experience in the review of clinical studies:
was the first ethics commission in Germany to make its work transparent for the public. Its statutes were made public in 1984;
was the first ethics commission in Germany to be registered by the Bundesinstitut für Arzneimittel und Medizinprodukte (BfArM) (German Institute for Drugs and Medical Products) in accordance with § 20 (previously §17) Medizinproduktegesetz (MPG) (Medical Products Law);
is registered as an ethics commission by the Bundesamt für Strahlenschutz (BfS) (German Office for Radiation Protection) in accordance with § 92 
Strahlenschutzverordnung (StrlSchV) (Radiation Protection Act) and in accordance with § 28 g Röntgenverordnung (RöV) (X-ray regulations);
initiated and designed VIP Check in 1986;
has reached an agreement with the Independent Interdisciplinary Ethics Committee (Moscow) in order to provide for the highest quality in the work of the ethics commissions in Germany, Russia (in Europe and in the East European states).
 |      |