Brazil Moves to Streamline Licensing, Benefit-Sharing Contracts for Bioprospecting

摘要

Brazil wants to make it much easier for companies to conduct bioprospecting and sign benefit-sharing contracts for extracting and commercializing products derived from genetic resources, everything from local plants and animals to micro-organisms, an Environment Ministry official told Bloomberg BNA. Bioprospecting for genetic resources refers to exploiting biological material of possible commercial value from plants, animals or micro-organisms. The proposed law, which Brazil's government sent to Congress June 20, is mainly aimed at companies developing new Pharmaceuticals or cosmetics made with such genetic material. "The proposed law, the most important piece of environmental legislation to reach Congress this year, will replace a 2001 presidential measure whose confusing provisions and red tape have hindered bioprospecting and the private-sector investments that can result from it," Eliana Fontes, the Environment Ministry's director of genetic resources, told Bloomberg BNA June 26. "The proposed law, when sanctioned, will boost company investments that result from easier access to bioprospecting here."