Focus: Bio-Piracy - One Patent Law for the Rich, Another for the Poor

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THERE MAY not yet be any ethical agreement on whether it should be possible to patent living organisms. But multinational corporations have already begun registering them. And World Trade Organisation rules are being used to enforce them. Among those successfully secured - by transnational companies, the US government and Western universities - are:

n A variety of Basmati rice

n Brazzein, a berry from Gabon 2,000 times sweeter than sugar

n A compound from snake gourd, a plant used in traditional Chinese medicine

n Ayahuasca, a medicinal plant grown in the Amazon region for centuries

n Endod, an African plant lethal to snails. …