ABSTRACT
Overall, there is a gradual but noticeable trends towards more creative benefit-sharing, and the development of standards of benefit-sharing ‘best practice’, involving monetary and non-monetary benefits in the short, medium and long term. This trend reflects the evolution of public opinion, NGO advocacy, privatesector responses to source-country demands and the initiative of intermediary institutions that have tried to broker the interests of provider country groups and commercial users. Widely publicized cases, such as the agreement between InBio and Merck in Costa Rica, have served to some extent as a template for the development of subsequent benefit-sharing arrangements. However, there is a growing appreciation that what is ‘fair and equitable’ is likely to differ substantially across industry sectors, product areas and individual research and development programmes, and that successful benefit-sharing arrangements are those tailored to the specific circumstances of an individual case. These are guided by growing agreement on basic standards of best practice. The following is a brief review of current practice in benefit-sharing in selected sectors.
