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Health Care PUBLICATIONS |
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Biotechnological and Pharmaceutical Research and Development Investment Under a Patent-Based Access and Benefit Sharing Regime
Submitted by Benjamin Zycher on 5.1.2005
The forthcoming Access and Benefit-Sharing (ABS) provisions of the Convention on Biodiversity carry significant potential implications for the future of biotechnological and pharmaceutical research and development investment, and thus for the evolution of preventative and therapeutic medicine, that is, for the future alleviation of human suffering. If implemented in a system of contractual arrangements, ABS would secure for the owners of flora, fauna, and traditional knowledge clearer and more certain ownership of intellectual and physical property without the severe valuation and other biases inherent in a patent-based system. A patent-based ABS system on the other hand would be equivalent analytically to a long-run tax on biotechnological and pharmaceutical research and development investment. Accordingly, it would have the effect of reducing such investment and thus the worldwide biotechnological and pharmaceutical capital stock over time.
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