Indonesia – defender of intellectual property rights, or obstacle to progress against avian flu?
Is Indonesia right to withhold samples of the H5N1 virus? Talks held by the WHO in Geneva last week failed to reach an agreement. Monitoring viral samples is essential for tracking mutations in the deadly H5N1 strain and represents our best hope for developing vaccines against a potential pandemic. However, Indonesia has withheld viral samples since August 2007 amidst fears that they would not be able to afford vaccines developed by pharmaceutical companies.
As part of an “equitable sharing of benefits”, Indonesia is now demanding a ‘materials transfer agreement’ for each virus sample sent to foreign labs, specifying that the sample is for diagnostic use only and should not be used for commercial gain (Reuters).
Read more from the Nature News blog.The Great Beyond
