A Penny for Your Thoughts: Private and Collective Contracting for Traditional Medicinal Knowledge Modeled on Bioprospecting Contracts in Costa Rica

Authors

• Katie Bates, University of Georgia School of Law

Publication Date

2007

Abstract

For decades, pharmaceutical companies have prospected biologically diverse developing countries for plants and molecules that may form the foundations of groundbreaking medicines. In many cases, native populations have aided researchers by directing them to the plants used in their traditional medicines. Only recently, however, have native peoples pushed for compensation for this valuable contribution. The governments of developing countries, too, have begun to assert legal and physical control over their natural resources, making access to these resources by pharmaceutical companies more difficult and costly. Simultaneously, scientific developments have made drug discovery through alternative methods more feasible. Despite these changes, it is agreed that bioprospecting, if done economically, can significantly contribute to modern drug development. This Note proposes a contracting scheme to facilitate economic and efficient bioprospecting wherein native peoples collectively bargain through a central organization for the sale of their traditional medicinal knowledge. The scheme is modeled on lessons learned from bioprospecting contracts between the Costa Rican organization Instituto Nacionalde Biodiversidad(National Biodiversity Institute, or INBio), the Costa Rican government, and the pharmaceutical company, Merck & Co.

Recommended Citation

Bates, Katie (2007) "A Penny for Your Thoughts: Private and Collective Contracting for Traditional Medicinal Knowledge Modeled on Bioprospecting Contracts in Costa Rica," Georgia Law Review: Vol. 41: No. 3, Article 16.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/glr/vol41/iss3/16