Joakim flyter upp frågan om patent i bioteknikindustrin och om en generell patentform fungerar för alla?
För mig blev problemen med dagens situation tydligen när Brasiliens flotta funderade på att sänka skeppet Götheborg på sin färd till Kina.
Det är Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) och den spelar in på biologiskt material. Läs mer i min artikel Here Come the Bio-Vikings!
Back then, many overestimated the opportunities offered by biomaterials used in the still relatively undeveloped biotechnology sector — with very profitable applications in agriculture, medicine and so on. There was talk of the ”green gold” that soon would provide significant new income to developing countries. The argument was made that these countries would need incentives for protecting their biodiversity by being able to charge the West extensively for the right to use biomaterials.
At the UN’s Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was signed and has now been ratified by 176 nations. As well-intentioned as the CBD treaty might have been, it severely restricted the ability of researchers to collect biosamples, as it forbids the collection on another state’s territory ”subject to prior informed consent” of that state.
Parallel to this was the development in intellectual property, through the introduction of patents created originally to protect industrial hardware and not biological materials. This restricted the previously unlimited access and trade in genetic information and genetic materials.
Den tuffa debatten kring växtförädling lyfts ännu en gång av Carl-Gustaf Thornström på Forskarbloggen.