In 1989, the Administrative Supreme Court of the state of Hesse, West Germany, blocks the multinational chemical company Hoeschst from completing a plant in Frankfurt for the production of human insulin because the technicians would be using genetic engineering.

The court based its decision not directly on fears about safety, but on the grounds that there is no legal framework for the industrial application of gene technology in West Germany. ‘Only legislation can decide whether or not gene technology can be used on an industrial scale,’ the judges said in their verdict.

The Hesse Supreme Court overruled a decision by the local authority in Darmstadt in July last year, which allowed Hoechst to press on with plans to construct a production line for making engineered human insulin for a two-year test period.