Global Multilateral Benefit-Sharing Mechanism (GMBSM)
Grappling with Biofraud: Decision 16/2 Disenfranchises UNCBD Parties of Justifiable Rents for Genetic Resources
By Joseph Henry Vogel and Pallavi Mishra
A multilateral benefit-sharing mechanism for digital sequence information on genetic resources (DSI) is under development by the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (UNCBD). Benefits are slated to be negligible. Biopiracy will continue to thrive in the digital realm unless an effective mechanism is established. The global South should place on record at COP17, scheduled for October 2026, that DSI-distinct-from-genetic-resources is not only wrong but fraudulent. Like-minded mega-diverse Parties should propose that a “fair and equitable” benefit be interpreted as analogous to the economic rent that inheres in intellectual property. Rent is the difference in profits that industry enjoys before a patent expires. For a Global Multilateral Benefit-sharing Mechanism to be efficient, the use of de-materialized genetic resources, inter alia “DSI”, must be disclosed in patent applications (Yes/No), with tracing for successful commercialisations.
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Alternative Modality for Landmark Decision of UN Convention on Biodiversity: Bounded Openness over Natural Information
By Joseph Henry Vogel
The Secretariat of the 1993 United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity requested Submissions of Views on “possible additional modalities for the fair and equitable sharing of benefits from the use of digital sequence information on genetic resources”. Bounded Openness over Natural Information is an alternative that could supplant the modalities of Decision 16/2 and achieve fairness, equity and efficiency.
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Decision 15/9 and the Nagoya Protocol: Who should get what in the Multilateral Benefit-Sharing Mechanism?
By Joseph Henry Vogel, Natasha C. Jiménez-Revelles, Xavier A. Maldonado-Ramírez de Arellano
Article 10 of the Nagoya Protocol (NP), “Global Multilateral Benefit-Sharing Mechanism” (GMBSM), asks Parties to consider the distribution of benefits derived from the utilization of genetic resources in transboundary situations. A literature exists which applies the economics of information to genetic resources, when interpreted as “natural information”. The policy implication would incentivize reduction in the drivers of mass extinction, through economic rents in royalty obligations. Fifteen cases become thought experiments on how to share royalty income. A sixteenth case addresses the TP53 gene in elephants, which may revolutionize oncology. In parallel to Article 10 of the NP is Decision 15/9 of the fifteenth Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity. That Decision establishes a “multilateral benefit-sharing mechanism from the use of digital sequence information on genetic resources”. Redundancy with the GMBSM is only apparent. The Decision omits rents and thus renders its mechanism inefficient, unfair and inequitable.
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Movement Forward on ABS for the Convention on Biological Diversity: Bounded Openness Over Natural Information
by Joseph Henry Vogel, Manuel Ruiz Muller, Klaus Angerer, and Christopher May
“Access to genetic resources” and “fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising [from their] utilization” is the third objective of the 1992 United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The expression is included in the full title of the 2010 Nagoya Protocol (NP). Neither agreement defined “material” in the phrase “genetic material” which resulted in misinterpretation that the object of access for R&D is tangible. Unfairness ensues: competition among provider Parties leads to the elimination of economic rents, which is desirable for tangibles but undesirable for intangibles. Once interpreted as natural information, the economics of information justifies a Global Multilateral Benefit-Sharing Mechanism (GMBSM) (Article 10 NP) which collects and distributes rents on value added to genetic resources. “Bounded openness over natural information” is the modality proposed for the GMBSM. The Executive Secretary of the United Nations Secretariat of the CBD recognized the argument in the 2021 Note “Digital Sequence Information on Genetic Resources”.
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