The Protection of Traditional Knowledge at the Frontiers of Drug Discovery

Name: The Protection of Traditional Knowledge at the Frontiers of Drug Discovery
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ISBN: 9781509972326

Peter S Harrison (Lecturer in Law, University of York, UK)

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English

Hart Publishing
19 March 2026

International law; Intellectual property law

This book concerns the often fractious interface between drug discovery and commercialisation, environmental degradation, the biodiversity crisis, the exploitation of indigenous peoples and the destruction of their culture, the right to health, inequalities of power, and the ability of the law to protect knowledge.

For millennia, medicinal plants have provided a trove of treatments for human ailments, and the key to that treasure has been the traditional knowledge of the indigenous peoples who have lived alongside these plants. More recently that knowledge has been taken, often without consent or recompense, by Western science as a springboard for the development of pharmaceutical agents. As a response to threats to biodiversity and indigenous culture, international mechanisms have created, or are creating, enforceable rights for indigenous peoples to control such knowledge.

With a background in pharmacology and molecular biology and significant experience as a lawyer in pharmaceutical and biotech patent litigation, the author brings a fresh perspective to understanding the difficulties of enforcing such rights and, in particular, examines whether there is a philosophically justifiable limit to the downstream scope of such rights.

This book is aimed at all those with an interest in the control of indigenous genetic knowledge and the protection of indigenous culture, whether academics, anthropologists or pharmaceutical researchers, and those seeking to make indigenous rights work, as activists, legislators or practising lawyers.

By: Peter S Harrison (Lecturer in Law University of York UK)
Imprint: Hart Publishing
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 232mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 20mm
Weight: 540g
ISBN: 9781509972326
ISBN 10: 1509972323
Pages: 352
Publication Date: 19 March 2026
Audience: College/higher education , Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

1. Introduction 2. The International ‘Solutions’ to Claims of Misappropriation of TKAGR 3. The Nature of Positive Rights in TKAGR within the Nagoya Protocol 4. The Philosophical Justifications for Positive Rights in TKAGR 5. The Landscape of Drug Discovery 6. The Application of Philosophical Justifications for Positive Rights in TKAGR to the Serendipitous Discovery of Second Uses 7. Synthesis of Findings and Further Analysis 8. Conclusions

Peter S Harrison is Senior Lecturer in Law (Associate Professor) at the University of York, UK.

Reviews for The Protection of Traditional Knowledge at the Frontiers of Drug Discovery

[A] timely and helpful resource that ultimately seeks to highlight the practical and workable approaches to traditional knowledge protection … the book takes the necessary time to explain complex aspects of the drug discovery process and critically analyse various philosophical justifications for intellectual property. It will be of interest to any readers who follow the policy debates about intellectual property and the protection of traditional knowledge, especially in the pharmaceutical industry * The IPKat *