NOTE: This paper is timely in light of Monsanto's threat to sue EFSA over publication of its "commercially confidential" data on the GM maize NK603:
  http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/52-2013/14684
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Nielsen KM (2013) Biosafety Data as Confidential Business Information. PLoS Biol 11(3): e1001499 doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001499
Read the open-access, full-text article here:   http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1001499

Confidential business information (CBI) is a necessary tool to protect commercial interests in the rapidly developing field of gene technology. CBI is also often claimed for documentation and materials supporting the biosafety assessments of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) intended for environmental release, food, and feed use. However, such claims oftentimes marginally serve their legitimate purpose to protect commercial interests and unnecessarily limit transparency and public peer review of data submitted to regulatory authorities. CBI and proprietary claims also restrict access to transgene sequence data, transgenic seeds, and other GMO materials, which precludes the development of independent research and monitoring strategies. In the long run, such claims are counterproductive to the safe and responsible commercial development of GM technology as they hinder the accumulation of biosafety data in the open, peer-reviewed literature, which is needed for both public and scientific consensus-building on safety issues and for improvements to the risk-assessment procedure itself. The increasing recognition of conflicts of interest as an invariable part of market-oriented safety-data production, interpretation, and risk communication also calls for transparency and open access to safety-related data and assessments.