Bioprospecting Today

Who is bioprospecting today?

            There are a few major pharmaceutical industries today that are conducting bioprospecting expeditions. The links provided here will provide more information about the specific goals of each company if interested. There are also some research institutions that sponsor scientific discovery for the sake of long-term study rather than specific marketable medicines.

Merck has partnered up with InBio, a Costa Rican non-profit. To read the company's statement about this partnership, follow this link: http://www.merck.com/cr/science_innovation_and_quality/key_issues_in_research/biodiversity/home.html

Here is InBio's link to their bioprospecting unit: http://www.inbio.ac.cr/en/inbio/inb_prosp.htm

Bristol-Myers-Squibb also sponsors bioprospecting, and have established a council for BioEthics within their corporation: http://www.bms.com/static/ehs/perfor/data/humanr.html#bioprospect

Shaman Pharmaceuticals did much research, and prided themselves on incorporating local knowledge, but have since sold most of their property rights to other companies such as PS Pharmaceuticals: http://www.netsci.org/Science/Special/feature11.html and http://www.napopharma.com/mission.html

The International Center for Chemical Sciences in Development (IOCD), is a research organization that sponsors and collaborates between national government bodies and scientists to promote biodiversity research. To link to their current work in Uganda, visit here: http://www.iocd.org/uganda_2004.html

The International Collaborative Biodiversity Groups program will be explored as one of the major case studies in this website, but it is interesting in its position because it has many large sponsors – the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Agriculture.

The Missouri Botanical Garden has a division that tracks current Bioprospecting agreements and projects: http://www.wlbcenter.org/icbg.htm

Other organizations, such as Monsanto, Syngenta Phytopharm, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer and basically any large pharmaceutical companies sponsor bioprospecting and biotechnology research. Biogen, Genentech, and Chiron are also drug research companies that work with biotechnology.