The challenge will be a very important part of the negotiations at the UN’s nature summit COP15 in Montreal, Canada. Developing countries have long called for a demand for payment for discoveries made by the pharmaceutical industry based on their biological diversity. Several African countries are now insisting on a fair distribution of the use of genetic resources and that an agreement on the use of biodiversity must include compensation for the country that “houses” the plants. Think they are losing control Modern biotechnology has enabled the world to use nature in new ways and find substances that can be useful. When the coronavirus hit the world, it took only weeks before scientists had sequenced the virus’s DNA. Everyone could freely use the data and helped make it possible to develop vaccines in record time. Nature’s gene bank contains medicines, vaccines and food production. But it is the pharmaceutical companies, and not the countries, that profit from the discoveries and the sale of the genetic material. Developing countries believe they are losing control and an overview of their resources and want an efficient way to ensure that part of the natural values accrue to them, even if they are in electronic form. At the nature summit taking place in Montreal, they will agree on a so-called framework for biological diversity for the years after 2020. The aim is to arrive at what is called a Paris agreement for nature. Serves poor countries’ biodiversity: – Unreasonable Poor countries often have much greater biodiversity, according to Nils Christian Stenseth, professor of ecology and evolution at the University of Oslo (UiO). Professor Nils Christian Stenseth. Photo: Eva C Simensen / UiO – Firstly, nature is such that in the southern parts of the world, around the equator, biological diversity is much greater. Secondly, we in the richer part of the world have destroyed a lot of our natural resources, says Stenseth. Pharmaceutical companies can make billions from plant DNA, and that is completely unreasonable, believes Stenseth, who says there should be some form of taxation. – These are the common resources for the whole world. It is the common resources of the countries in question, and in my opinion it is completely unreasonable that private companies come from the richer part of the world and should make money without the countries from which the resources actually come being left with anything, says Stenseth. The Kalahari cactus became very popular in Western countries a few years ago, when it was believed that it could be used to quell feelings of hunger. Photo: Wikipedia Commons – Must recognize them The new global agreement that is concluded in Montreal just before Christmas will be as important for nature as the Paris Agreement has been for climate. There has now been one week of negotiations at the nature summit. Together with South Africa, Norway has led the negotiations on what is also called nature’s data bank (DSI). Climate and Environment Minister Espen Barth Eide (Ap) says it is important for the world to utilize genetic resources, but that one must recognize the rights of the country that found them first and where they originated. – That is why we are trying to reach an agreement on how we can both make this information available to everyone, but at the same time recognize the rights through the fact that they will receive a fee for the use of this information. – At the same time, one must recognize the rights of what are often poor countries which are often the ones with the most biodiversity left, and therefore there is a very strong desire that we find some common rules for this so that pharmaceutical companies can, for example, use these codes, but that some of the money remains where this material was found, he says. Yesterday it also became clear that Barth Eide will lead the final negotiations on nature’s data bank together with Environment Minister in Chile Majsa Rojas. Espen Barth Eide in conversation with the Environment Minister in Chile, Majsa Rojas. Photo: Ministry of Climate and the Environment. Grains and cactus An example of medicine developed from plants is Cyclosporin. It is an immunosuppressive substance and is used in organ transplantation to avoid rejection of new organs. The substance was once isolated from lichen on Hardangervidda by researchers from a Swiss pharmaceutical company. This company earns approximately NOK 10 billion annually from the medicine they have developed, according to the national digital learning arena. Teff grain is one of the most important crops in Ethiopia. It is used to make injera, the pancakes that are part of all Ethiopian meals. The grain is popular because it is healthy and gluten-free. In 2004, teff grains were patented as an invention in the Netherlands and Germany, writes The Africa Report. After a settlement in court regarding license payments, the patent ended up being canceled in the Netherlands in 2018 and declared in Germany the following year. In southern Africa, the Kalahari cactus grows. It has been known among the native San people to quench hunger and thirst. In 2001, a patent was taken on the cactus’s active molecule in South Africa. The license rights were sold to the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer for 25 million dollars. After a few rounds of court, an agreement was reached with the San people, but it is unclear whether it led to them receiving any money.
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Will have paid for DNA from own plants – news Urix – Utenriksnyheter og -documentarer
