The chairman of the Bio-Industry Association warned fellow industrialists they must listen to people's concerns about biotechnology and persuade them that medical research saves lives.

Dr Paul Drayson, who is also chief executive of Oxford painless injection company Powderject, said Huntingdon Life Sciences, the drug-testing group forced to the brink of receivership by animal rights activists, "should serve as a stark warning" to biotechnology firms.

In a speech to the association's annual dinner, he said companies must engage with politicians, the media and the public to explain the huge patient benefits offered by cutting-edge medical technologies developed in the UK.

Dr Drayson added that in the new century, biotechnology would become as important to society as the computer did in the last.

He urged industry leaders to "be proud of what you do biotechnology can deliver the medicines that society demands".

He said the public debate surrounding the ethics of the industry was the single most important issue facing biotechnology today and urged companies "to make Britain the life-sciences hub of Europe, fighting the killer diseases that have plagued mankind for centuries".

He said: "Biotechnology, particularly stem cell research, is potentially a new weapon against degenerative ailments such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases that presently cost the NHS hundreds of millions of pounds in long-term care."