Actinic Prurigo in the Mexican Indigenous Population : Are There True Benefits for the Indigenous Communities Involved?

• Autores: Granados, Palmira
• Año de publicación: 2011
• Idioma: inglés
• Tipo de recurso: documento de conferencia
• Materia: Ciencias Informáticas; Patents; Human Genetic Information; Indigenous Peoples; Healthcare
• Institución: Universidad Nacional de La Plata

With the Human Genome Project, the genome and the mapping thereof was declared to remain in the commons and freely available to all researchers. Shortly after, patents on products and methods related to many genes started to be granted on the justification of supporting and boosting the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries so as to strengthen the countries' economies and to allow the creation of helpful medical products that would improve society's health and healthcare. Nowadays, the debate between the aforesaid stances has been stoked citing the risks of protecting a Patent System that may cause a heavily restricted access to knowledge and information or of protecting a Scientific Commons. Today, there has not been any clear conclusion with respect to the incentive or deterrent effect of patents or of the Commons. The reason is that neither of the expressed stances is absolute and the question cannot be answered in the abstract. This work in progress aims to provide a glimpse on how the patent system impacts the relationship between researchers and Mexican indigenous peoples as human research subjects and indigenous peoples’ access to healthcare as beneficiaries of the resulting Medical Products and Services in real and concrete situations.
Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativa