Willcox Merlin, Diallo Drissa, Sanogo Rokia, Giani Sergio, Graz Bertrand, Falquet Jacques, Bodeker Gerard
Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Radcliffe Observatory Quarter, Woodstock Rd., Oxford OX2 6GG, UK.
Institut National de Recherche en Santé Publique, Bamako, Mali; Faculté de Pharmacie, Université des Sciences, Techniques et Technologies de Bamako, Mali.
J Ethnopharmacol. 2015 Dec 24;176:281-5. doi: 10.1016/j.jep.2015.10.041. Epub 2015 Oct 31.
Protection of intellectual property rights and benefit-sharing are key issues for all ethnopharmacological research. The International Society of Ethnobiology has produced helpful guidelines on access and benefit-sharing which are widely viewed as a "gold standard" but the question remains how best to apply these guidelines in practice. Difficult questions include ownership of traditional knowledge, making appropriate agreements, and how appropriately to share benefits.
We present the case study of the development of an "improved traditional medicine" for malaria in Mali and we report how benefit-sharing was applied in this case.
The knowledge about the selected plant came independently from several families and traditional healers. The IPR approach was to recognise that this traditional knowledge belongs to the people of Mali and was used for their benefit in developing a new "improved traditional medicine" (ITM). The traditional healer whose method of preparation was used, and who collaborated in clinical trials, did not request any financial reward but asked for the ITM to be named after him. The most sustainable benefit for the community was sharing the results of which preparation of which medicinal plant seemed to be the most effective for treating malaria. Attempts at providing a health centre and training a health worker for the village did not prove to be sustainable.
Respect for intellectual property rights and benefit-sharing are possible even in a context where the knowledge is not owned by a clearly identified person or group of people. The most sustainable benefits are intangible rather than material: namely recognition, improved knowledge about which traditional treatment is the best and how to prepare and take it.
知识产权保护和利益分享是所有民族药理学研究的关键问题。国际民族生物学会制定了关于获取与利益分享的有益指南，这些指南被广泛视为“黄金标准”，但问题仍然是如何在实践中最好地应用这些指南。难题包括传统知识的所有权、达成适当协议以及如何恰当地分享利益。
我们介绍了在马里开发一种治疗疟疾的“改良传统药物”的案例研究，并报告了该案例中利益分享是如何应用的。
关于所选植物的知识独立来自几个家族和传统治疗师。知识产权方法是认识到这种传统知识属于马里人民，并在开发新的“改良传统药物”（ITM）中用于他们的利益。使用其制备方法并参与临床试验的传统治疗师没有要求任何经济回报，而是要求以他的名字命名该ITM。对社区最可持续的利益是分享哪种药用植物的哪种制剂似乎对治疗疟疾最有效的结果。为该村庄提供一个保健中心并培训一名卫生工作者的尝试被证明是不可持续的。
即使在知识并非由明确确定的个人或群体所拥有的情况下，尊重知识产权和利益分享也是可能的。最可持续的利益是无形的而非物质的：即认可、关于哪种传统治疗方法最佳以及如何制备和服用的知识的改进。
