The Fort Worth Press - Who should get paid for nature's sequenced genes?

USD -
AED 3.672988
AFN 66.494644
ALL 91.150233
AMD 387.026867
ANG 1.80253
AOA 911.498647
ARS 987.736301
AUD 1.524158
AWG 1.8
AZN 1.699098
BAM 1.811328
BBD 2.019412
BDT 119.5173
BGN 1.807495
BHD 0.376854
BIF 2907.5
BMD 1
BND 1.325665
BOB 6.910731
BRL 5.761701
BSD 1.00012
BTN 84.072386
BWP 13.425143
BYN 3.273135
BYR 19600
BZD 2.015985
CAD 1.391095
CDF 2909.999909
CHF 0.86697
CLF 0.034655
CLP 956.249628
CNY 7.131198
CNH 7.119295
COP 4396.14
CRC 513.447433
CUC 1
CUP 26.5
CVE 102.475024
CZK 23.423958
DJF 177.720261
DKK 6.89263
DOP 60.406766
DZD 133.377084
EGP 48.711103
ERN 15
ETB 120.798106
EUR 0.92393
FJD 2.280596
FKP 0.765169
GBP 0.768315
GEL 2.73027
GGP 0.765169
GHS 16.259924
GIP 0.765169
GMD 69.499549
GNF 8629.99994
GTQ 7.731348
GYD 209.248266
HKD 7.77115
HNL 25.050287
HRK 6.88903
HTG 131.807068
HUF 374.459977
IDR 15773.2
ILS 3.722689
IMP 0.765169
INR 84.07525
IQD 1310
IRR 42105.000018
ISK 137.219788
JEP 0.765169
JMD 158.229607
JOD 0.708898
JPY 153.162028
KES 128.496201
KGS 85.796025
KHR 4070.00018
KMF 455.45018
KPW 899.999774
KRW 1384.305003
KWD 0.30666
KYD 0.833519
KZT 490.284878
LAK 21935.000307
LBP 90024.499607
LKR 293.713418
LRD 192.050194
LSL 17.679773
LTL 2.95274
LVL 0.60489
LYD 4.819933
MAD 9.852497
MDL 17.928058
MGA 4615.000293
MKD 56.942051
MMK 3247.960992
MNT 3398.000028
MOP 8.003556
MRU 40.000536
MUR 46.219545
MVR 15.359868
MWK 1732.501597
MXN 20.057645
MYR 4.369623
MZN 63.909756
NAD 17.679568
NGN 1648.12977
NIO 36.802509
NOK 10.957195
NPR 134.516004
NZD 1.673825
OMR 0.385024
PAB 1.00012
PEN 3.77203
PGK 4.011969
PHP 58.331037
PKR 277.696037
PLN 4.010286
PYG 7961.954508
QAR 3.640503
RON 4.597007
RSD 108.167983
RUB 97.499584
RWF 1360
SAR 3.755655
SBD 8.333542
SCR 14.655176
SDG 601.471922
SEK 10.639385
SGD 1.323325
SHP 0.765169
SLE 22.69567
SLL 20969.496802
SOS 570.999819
SRD 34.328012
STD 20697.981008
SVC 8.751019
SYP 2512.530268
SZL 17.679961
THB 33.662014
TJS 10.651528
TMT 3.5
TND 3.107499
TOP 2.342102
TRY 34.27982
TTD 6.778358
TWD 32.066303
TZS 2724.999945
UAH 41.366871
UGX 3665.595451
UYU 41.620746
UZS 12810.000292
VEF 3622552.534434
VES 42.172869
VND 25310
VUV 118.722039
WST 2.801184
XAF 607.491341
XAG 0.029645
XAU 0.000367
XCD 2.70255
XDR 0.751741
XOF 605.999792
XPF 110.849593
YER 250.325012
ZAR 17.659019
ZMK 9001.193911
ZMW 26.628819
ZWL 321.999592
  • RBGPF

    62.3500

    62.35

    +100%

  • CMSC

    -0.1600

    24.57

    -0.65%

  • SCS

    -0.3800

    12.21

    -3.11%

  • BCC

    -6.9800

    131.64

    -5.3%

  • BTI

    -0.4500

    34.46

    -1.31%

  • RIO

    0.4000

    66.58

    +0.6%

  • GSK

    0.2900

    38.17

    +0.76%

  • BP

    -1.6900

    29.36

    -5.76%

  • CMSD

    -0.0400

    24.84

    -0.16%

  • NGG

    -0.8800

    65.12

    -1.35%

  • RYCEF

    0.0400

    7.25

    +0.55%

  • BCE

    -0.2300

    32.46

    -0.71%

  • RELX

    -0.2500

    47.91

    -0.52%

  • JRI

    -0.0900

    12.98

    -0.69%

  • AZN

    -0.7900

    75.22

    -1.05%

  • VOD

    -0.2600

    9.28

    -2.8%

Who should get paid for nature's sequenced genes?
Who should get paid for nature's sequenced genes? / Photo: © AFP/File

Who should get paid for nature's sequenced genes?

Much of the vanilla that flavors our ice cream today is artificial, derived from the genetic signature of a plant that hundreds of years ago was known only to an Indigenous Mexican tribe.

Text size:

The plant's sequenced genomic information, available on public databases, was used as the basis for a synthetic flavoring that today competes with vanilla grown in several countries, mainly by small-scale farmers.

Few, if any, benefits of the lucrative scientific advance have trickled down to the communities that gave us vanilla in the first place.

"Wild genetic resources and pharmaceuticals ... are a multi-multi-billion dollar businesses. They clearly are profitable... that's not in dispute," Charles Barber of the World Resources Institute think tank told AFP.

"A great deal of really valuable information has fed into the system from research and utilization of wild genetic resources. And there is no mechanism currently to compensate the people where this information is coming from" in the form of digitally sequenced data, he added.

Much of the information comes from poor countries.

Fair sharing of the gains derived from digitally-stored genetic sequencing data has been a headache for negotiators at the COP16 biodiversity summit into its second week in Cali, Colombia.

At the last conference, in Montreal in 2022, 196 country parties to the UN's Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) agreed to create a benefit-sharing mechanism for the use of digital sequence information (DSI).

Two years later, they still need to resolve such basic questions as who pays, how much, into which fund, and to whom does the money go?

- 'Cheap and very fast' -

The issue is a complex one.

There is little debate that genetic data-sharing on mostly free-access platforms is crucial for human advancement through medicine and vaccine development, for example.

But how to quantify the value of the sequenced information itself? And should the first people to discover a plant's particular usefulness be compensated?

"Sequencing technology has become so advanced that you can go with a... handheld device a little bit bigger than a cell phone and you can literally sequence a genome in an hour or two and upload it as you sequence it," Pierre du Plessis, a DSI expert and former negotiator for African countries at the CBD told AFP.

These gene sequences are then uploaded to databases which artificial intelligence can mine for potential leads for product development.

DSI is worth an estimated hundreds of billions of dollars a year. And there is a lot of it out there.

"Once the sequence is put into a public database, generally, no benefit-sharing obligations apply," Nithin Ramakrishnan, a researcher with the Third World Network, an advocacy NGO for developing countries, told AFP in Cali.

"Like when the sandalwood sequence information is available in the database whether India wants to share its sandalwood... with a cosmetic company or not, doesn't matter.

- Mandatory -

A point of contention in Cali is a demand from developing countries that payment for DSI use be mandatory, perhaps through a one-percent levy on profits from drugs, cosmetics or other products.

They also want guarantees of non-monetary benefits such as access to vaccines produced from genetic information sequenced from viruses and other pathogens.

"We want real understanding, sector-specific understanding of what non-monetary benefits will be shared and we want the system to be obligatory -- the users should have some form of obligation to share benefits," said Ramakrishnan.

Another sticking point is access for Indigenous people and local communities to DSI funds.

Developing countries want the information on genetic databases to be traceable and "answerable to governments" of the countries where it comes from, said Ramakrishnan.

But rich nations and many researchers oppose such a model which they fear will be too onerous, potentially putting the brakes on scientific pursuits that could benefit all humankind.

With such divergent points of view, observers are doubtful the Cali COP will emerge with any firm decisions on the outstanding questions by closing time on Friday.

The World Wildlife Fund has said "many more rounds of negotiations appear necessary" on DSI.

Added Barber: "I think it's not going to all get solved here."

T.Harrison--TFWP