Zugang zu Pflanzengenetischen Ressourcen für die ... - Genres
Zugang zu Pflanzengenetischen Ressourcen für die ... - Genres
Zugang zu Pflanzengenetischen Ressourcen für die ... - Genres
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W. E. SIEBECK<br />
Convention) set an example: For payment of $l million and provision of field equipment, Costa<br />
Rica's Instituto Nacional de Bioversidad will provide an unspecified number of probes (plants,<br />
insects, microbes) at Merck's choice over a period of two years. Merck has the right to patent<br />
inventions it makes from Costa Rican material, but has promised to pay INBio an undisclosed<br />
percentage of sales revenues. INBio intends to use the proceed in its on-going biodiversity<br />
conservation programs.<br />
In their search for genes, agricultural biotechnology industries are likely to follow the lead of the<br />
pharmaceutical industry, although holding out smaller monetary rewards coupled with access to<br />
improved seed material and collaboration agreements. The scope for joint research arrangements<br />
seems large in the agricultural area, and certainly greater than in the pharmaceutical field; while<br />
the odds of finding a blockbuster product are smaller.<br />
Academic and other public research groups may not be able to compete on the terms that industry<br />
can offer, especially with up-front payments. They may have other options: they can form alliances<br />
with industry, as Cornell University did in the Merck-Costa Rica deal. Or they may offer research<br />
and training services in exchange for genetic material. The Arrangement which the U.S. National<br />
Cancer Institute offers seems to point in this direction. The NCI annually procures some 6.000<br />
samples of plants, marine organisms and microbes from developing countries. In exchange it trains<br />
scientists from source countries and promises to negotiate a share of royalties on behalf of the<br />
source country with the eventual manufacturer of a cancer drug.<br />
Public genebanks, the major players in the current campaign to save the world's genetic resources,<br />
may not be able to do this. If a genebank cannot pay, and has little else to offer in exchange for<br />
genetic material 16 , developing countries may release genetic material only against a commitment<br />
from the genebank to restrict the use and distribution of the material. Supplying countries may,<br />
for instance, request a genebank to track every subsequent user who then would be required to<br />
share royalties with the source country. As genebanks have generally no control over distribution<br />
except for their first release, they may not be able to enter into such commitment; which, in turn,<br />
could seriously impede their collection efforts.<br />
The international agricultural research centers which to date have sent out probes without<br />
formality to any bona fide researcher worldwide are reviewing this policy. They may in future<br />
apply contractual arrangements through which they would control the subsequent use of material<br />
they make available. Such material transfer agreements – less restrictive than those used within the<br />
breeding and biotechnology industry – could limit or exclude the patentability of derivatives<br />
developed from center material (though this would not preempt the validity of a patent that is<br />
obtained in violation of such agreement), and provide for the sharing of benefits or the granting<br />
of royalty-free licenses to the originating center and/or the source country. Agreements could be<br />
concluded for each release of material (e.g. through a form letter accompanying each shipment),<br />
16<br />
They could offer their better equipped storage facilities to genebanks from developing countries.<br />
However, distrust in North-South relations has so far not permitted such arrangements on a larger scale.