The Nagoya Protocol and the Biotechnology Industry

Abstract

After the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) introduced a new legal framework covering the sovereign rights of states over resources that are considered to be a common heritage and freely accessible, the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization came into force in 2014. While the Nagoya Protocol will affect the biotechnology industry, industry awareness of the protocol is still fairly low. In this paper, we introduce the Nagoya Protocol, investigate the levels of awareness about the protocol, and analyze its expected impact on the biotechnology industry. The results show that companies in the biopharmaceutical field and the health functional food field are likely to be relatively highly impacted. Although the Nagoya Protocol may increase legal certainty and transparency, participants in companies have voiced concerns that it will negatively affect firms’ innovation performance by leading to increased costs and complexity of obtaining genetic resources. This study suggests that procedures for accessing genetic resources should be clearly and transparently certified. 