Health : Indigenous Knowledge, Equitable Benefits
The note looks at the intellectual property rights connected with the use, and value of medicinal plants, which has become a metaphor to describe indigenous ownership of traditional knowledge, generating options for contractual mechanisms to ensure...
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| Language: | English |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2012
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/1999/12/1671225/health-indigenous-knowledge-equitable-benefits http://hdl.handle.net/10986/10823 |
| Summary: | The note looks at the intellectual
property rights connected with the use, and value of
medicinal plants, which has become a metaphor to describe
indigenous ownership of traditional knowledge, generating
options for contractual mechanisms to ensure benefits return
to source cultures, and countries. However, through time,
the extinction rate of species, and cultures continues to
accelerate, while human health further deteriorates from
diseases for which no cure exists. The note seeks answers on
how to apply lessons from the Convention on Biological
Diversity, and how to move on to implementing such lessons.
Through the case study in Nigeria, practical information
shows how countries, companies, and cultures can cooperate.
It explains the work of the Bio-Resources Development and
Conservation Program, organized as a focal point for
collaborative research, that builds technical skills in
Nigeria, thus generating pharmaceutical leads that target
therapeutic categories for tropical diseases. Within this
setting, Sharman Pharmaceuticals established a research
relationship with scientific institutions, village
communities, and traditional healers, which uses the science
of ethno-botany, and that of natural product chemistry,
medicine and pharmacology, to create an efficient drug
discovery process. Recommendations on remaining issues, and
future progress are presented. |
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