Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 5 • Number 17 • 30th September 2005
Thai GM Papaya Benefit-Sharing Deal Causes Concern
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Thailand’s Department of Agriculture said on 26 September that it is likely to sign an agreement with US-based Cornell Research Foundation to share the benefits from the patenting and commercialisation of a virus-resistant genetically modified papaya called eksotika. The deal would cover a gene making the variety resistant to the papaya ringspot virus, a disease that wiped out papaya trees in Johor, the main papaya-growing state, in 1991. The gene that scientists at the Malaysian Agriculture Research and Development Institute (Mardi) and the Cornell foundation identified as the source of the virus would be included in the deal. However, experts said that the second proposed patent, on the ringspot virus gene itself, is a naturally occurring microorganism and so under Section 9 of the Thai Patents Act cannot be patented. The question is whether the isolation of the virus-causing gene by the scientists is sufficient to make the discovery “non-natural”, as would be the case under US patent law, or whether the long experience of Thai farmers with the virus makes the gene natural and the identification not sufficiently new to warrant patenting. Dr Surawit Vanakarod of Kasetsart University suggested that the latter was the case, and said that an agreement sharing the patent benefits of a pre-existing gene with a foreign foundation would set a precedent for future patents on genes that are contrary to the spirit of Thai laws and public concerns over GMOs. Jaroen Compeerapap, Vice-President of Silapakorn University argued that such a transfer of biological materials must adequately obtain prior informed consent of relevant authorities and local communities who could have knowledge of the papaya virus, or else the benefit-sharing agreement and patent would be in breach of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). GM papaya is a controversial issue in Thailand, where ongoing scandals regarding unintentional contamination of conventional crops with GM papaya have raised public wrath. On 6 September, Thailand’s Human Rights Commission said that a third of 31 papaya orchards tested across the country in July had been contaminated with GM seeds despite a ban on field trials.
“Deal to Share GM Benefits Likely,” BANGKOK POST, 27 September 2005; “More genetically modified papaya contamination found - Thai rights commission,” FORBES, 6 September 2005; “New papaya gene may revive industry,” NST ONLINE, 20 April 2005.
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