Role of marine bioprospecting contracts in developing access and benefit sharing mechanism for marine traditional knowledge holders in the pharmaceutical industry

The remarkable growth of bio-based industry has led to a rapid increase in the bioprospecting activities. The marine biomes are a rich reservoir of unique life systems making them an attractive target for bioprospecting for identification and development of potential drug molecules for human therapeutics. Many of the drug molecules such as ara-c, trabecetidin and eribulin have been discovered from marine organisms. It is noteworthy that indigenous communities have developed, preserved as well as evolved the marine traditional knowledge from one generation to next. Pharmaceutical companies utilize marine life based traditional knowledge developed by the communities at various stages of drug development, unfortunately, many a times without having a mechanism of access and benefit sharing in place. One such example is the marine bioprospecting Fiji contract that illustrates the role played by Fijian community and the lacuna in access and benefit sharing mechanisms. The present study is an attempt to explore the mechanism of fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from use of marine bioresources with the local communities as marine traditional knowledge holders in marine areas. It briefly describes the various international conventions and protocols that emphasize on the development of fair and equitable benefit sharing mechanisms. The study proposes marine bioprospecting contracts that are based on mutually agreed terms among the key stakeholders (the State with the genetic resources, traditional knowledge holders and marine bioprospectors). Marine bioprospecting contracts eventually will need to be customized as per the legislation of a country because of territorial nature of law. Also, the marine bioprospecting contracts will differ from other bioprospecting contracts due to various unique parameters associated with the activity such as economics of deep sea explorations (expensive processes of exploration and sample extraction), continuous supply of sample, the jurisdiction of marine areas and traditional knowledge associated. The present study elucidates the concept of marine bioprospecting contracts by considering India as a case study emphasizing sharing of benefits with traditional knowledge holders as well as ensuring sustainable use of marine genetic resources by the pharmaceutical sector.