ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the bearing of technological, legal and economic changes on the utilization of genetic resources. It presents the relevance of such resources for agricultural, pharmaceutical and, industrial biotechnology. The chapter focuses on economic changes, that is, the evolution of markets for genetic resources and shifts in the structure of relevant industries and considers changes in intellectual property law. The commercial use of genetic resources in biotechnology took off in the 1980s, yet the foundations were laid with the discovery of the DNA helix in 1953 and the invention of genetic engineering during the course of the 1970s. Biotechnology is widely being used for the production of small molecule drugs, which have traditionally been produced through chemical engineering. Recent developments might transform the commercial application of biotechnology in fundamental ways that could, in the long run, have important implications for international Access to and Benefit-sharing (ABS) governance.
