COMPULSORY LICENSE IN BIODIVERSITY BASED PATENT: PUBLIC HEALTH CONCERN AND BENEFIT SHARING FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

It is certainly true that when it comes to high-quality medicines, most of which are produced by international pharmaceutical companies - people have to pay premium prices. The prices are unaffordable for most of society in developing and under developed countries. With some 80 % of the world's biological diversity lying in the tropical and sub tropical regions of the south (Velasquez G. and Boulet P, 1999), accompanied by the fact that 56 % of the top 150 prescribed drugs in the United State of America are based on chemicals derived from plants (Inter Press Service, 1998), and the existence of a world market for herbal medicine estimated at USD 43 billion with annual growth rate of between 5 % to 15 % (The Inter - Regional Workshop on Intellectual Property Rights, 2000), the potential of biological diversity to secure public health are enormous. On the other hands the massive potential economic rewards for pharmaceutical industry make it such a high temptation for pharmaceutical companies to commit biodiversity prospecting and ended up with acts of biodiversity piracy seeking exclusive monopoly over these resources and knowledge using patent - based intellectual property rights as the tool to set up a high standard price that resulting the potential to harm the public health and access to medicine which is a growing problem in developing countries and under developed countries due to the fact that medicines are unavailable, inaccessible or unaffordable for those who need them most. The protection of public health is one of the most pressing issues in developing countries because a large part of the world population still lacks access to essential drugs.