Bioprospecting arrangements: cooperation between the north and the south.

The ICBG (International Cooperative Biodiversity Groups) program, through which institutions located in biotechnology-rich countries in the North collaborate with institutions located in the biodiversity-rich countries in the South (with the support of an industrial partner) to discover and develop natural-product drugs, is an experiment in the design of bioprospecting efforts. This chapter describes the general aims and organization of the ICBGs and describes in great detail the agreements that governed the University of Illinois at Chicago-Vietnam-Laos ICBG. The chapter includes material concerning IP (intellectual property) rights issues, informed consent, various forms of benefit sharing (including the sharing of shortand long-term, namely, royalty, benefits), capacity building, and community reciprocity. It offers a model for other such agreements. HANDBOOK OF BEST PRACTICES | 1511 One model of a biodiversity prospecting effort is a program called ICBG (International Cooperative Biodiversity Groups). Based in the United States, ICBG falls under the auspices of the Fogarty International Center (FIC) of the United States National Institutes of Health (NIH). It also collaborates with the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).3 A five-year cycle program, it went into operation in 1993 in response to a request for applications issued by FIC in 1992.4 The ICBG second cycle began on 1 October, 1998, as a result of new and recompeting proposals in response to a request for applications issued by FIC in 1997.5 On 17 October 2002, a request for applications for a 2003–2008 ICBG cycle recompetition was again issued.6 2. The ICBG pRoGRAm International Cooperative Biodiversity Groups, or ICBGs, address the interdependent issues of drug discovery, biodiversity conservation, and sustainable economic growth. They are founded in the belief that efforts to examine the medicinal CHAPTER 16.5