Regulating Bioprospecting: Institutions for Drug Research, Access and Benefit Sharing

Bioprospecting—the search for useful biochemical compounds and genes in nature—has been the focus of international negotiations for more than a decade. The debate on the terms for access to genetic resources, traditional knowledge, and benefit-sharing is far from settled. This book examines the optimal property rights structures and institutional mechanisms for regulating bioprospecting for drug research. It includes examples of bioprospecting collaborations in several countries. Regulating Bioprospecting is one of the first books to address the contractual complexities of bioprospecting for drug research and is thus a key text for policymakers, practitioners, and scholars in the areas of law, economics, ethnobotany, anthropology, and environmental sciences. "The book offers stimulating insights in a rigorous and accessible manner. It will be of great value for researchers, policymakers, managers, and all those concerned with the protection and sustainable use of biodiversity."—Carlos M. Correa, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina "A welcome contribution to an important but highly polarized debate."—Graham Dutfield, Queen Mary Intellectual Property Research Institute, University of London, UK