Switzerland is Europe's water reservoir. Up to 6% of the continent's fresh water reserves are in a territory surrounded by mountains, where there are no beaches or sea. Even so, it belongs to the club of the 10 countries in the world—including the United States, Germany and Japan—that hold almost 98% of all marine genetic patents on the planet. There is an explanation: the main pharmaceutical firms are based in Switzerland, one of the sectors that invests the most resources (and obtains the greatest profits) from the exploitation of these licenses.
After all, immense biodiversity lives beneath the ocean waters, much of it yet to be discovered and studied. Thousands of organisms whose scientific (and economic) value has long been on the radar of the world's largest economies and companies. That the German multinational BASF, the largest chemical manufacturer in this very powerful industry, has registered up to 47% of the 12,998 genetic sequences associated with 862 marine species, demonstrates the gigantic business that is hidden in the sea.
A study carried out by the Stockholm Resilience Center and the University of British Columbia (Canada) predicts that, by 2025, the global marine biotechnology market will reach $6.4 billion and cover a wide range of commercial solutions for different areas, including the pharmaceutical, biofuels or chemical sector.
The problem is that two thirds of the oceans are outside national jurisdictions, that is, the territorial waters that belong to countries. In other words: half of the Earth's surface lacks regulations on access or use of genetic resources. And only the richest States – those with more financial muscle, means and technology – can pay for expeditions to these distant places, extract biological samples, do research in the laboratory and patent the resource for later commercial exploitation.
“It is necessary to establish an international legal and ethical framework that guarantees equitable and sustainable access to these marine genetic resources, which should be proclaimed the Common Heritage of Humanity,” says Nuria Navarro, professor in the Department of Biology at the Rey Juan Carlos University ( Madrid).
Beyond monetary gains, the fact that a group of privileged countries has the majority of these patents means that they can control their use and exclude other States. This veto implies enormous difficulties in carrying out research and developing our own technologies based on these marine genes. That is to say, inequalities between rich and poor are once again accentuated.
A historic agreement
At the end of last year, the United Nations took an important and necessary step to begin to control the situation. In September the Agreement for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological biodiversity in areas outside national jurisdiction, a pact endorsed by 60 countries, including Spain. The document advocates “creating a framework for the fair and equitable distribution” of the possible benefits derived from activities related to marine genetic resources and their digital sequencing in international waters, which guarantees that these actions “benefit all humanity.”
The researcher at the Canary Islands Oceanographic Center IEO-CSIC Jesús Arrieta highlights this “historical milestone, which attempts to promote access to technology and knowledge” for all nations. But now the difficult part remains, which is to translate it into precise actions. “We still need to know what specific mechanisms will be established to redistribute economic benefits and access to international genetic information among all,” warns Nuria Navarro.
Since 1994, the International Seabed Authority (ISA) has controlled the exploration and exploitation of resources located in ocean sediments that are outside the limits of national jurisdiction. “But this regulation only affected the soils and not the water column. For this reason, the first one who arrived got the resource,” explains Arrieta. And the industry was (and is) aware of that potential.
New treasures
Already in 2010, this expert participated in a CSIC work that demonstrated a 12% annual increase in marine gene patents, a growth 10 times faster than the description of new species. “The success in finding chemical substances of interest not yet described in marine organisms is 500 times higher than in the case of terrestrial species,” his research maintains. Furthermore, genetic resources with economic potential “abound in biodiversity hotspots, such as coral reefs, underwater mountains or polar ecosystems,” all of which are threatened by climate change and the impact of human activity.
The coordinator of Marine Protected Areas at WWF Spain, Óscar Esparza, emphasizes this point. The fact that only a handful of countries use the majority of the planet's resources, he laments, compromises biodiversity. “It is a danger that conservation remains in the hands of the market because it can lead to monopolistic practices and unfair exploitation,” Esparza insists. The first signs that there is a real interest in moving towards the common good and putting a stop to these practices have already been activated. But the road ahead has only just begun.
Up to 20 years of operation
From the moment it is granted, the owners of each patent have 20 years to exploit it exclusively. Obtaining one of these licenses involves a very high cost, and it is not easy. “Technical applications of ideas are patented and it is necessary to demonstrate that they work. They are only awarded when the examiner verifies that they are really new, that no one has done anything like it before,” says Pancho Sueiro, expert in the Knowledge Transfer area of the CSIC.