BIOTECH researchers have an insatiable appetite for new bioactive compounds and platforms, and past experience has shown researchers that useful compounds can be found anywhere, from seaweed to scorpions. But is legislation keeping up with our research appetite? Katy Scott investigates for BTN.

The NT's unique biodiversity could generate new revenues for the region through bioprospecting.

While intellectual property and patent law cover the human ingenuity that goes into biotech discoveries, the legal position of companies that exploit native flora and fauna to source their compounds is a little more unclear. A number of Australian states have moved to pass biodiscovery legislation to protect both the state's common wealth and the companies that seek to commercialise their discoveries.

Queensland was the first state to introduce legislative guidelines allowing researchers to apply to collect and examine samples of flora and fauna for useful compounds. If any compounds are found, developed, commercialised and eventually show a profit, that money will be shared between the company and the state in a benefit-sharing agreement.

The Biodiscovery Act 2004 was part of Queensland's "Smart State" strategy, which aimed to advance Queensland's economy through knowledge, research, education, innovation and science – specifically planning to boost biotech industry development.

A spokesperson for the Queensland Environmental Protection Agency's Parks and Wildlife Service said the legal certainty provided by the Act had given international organisations the confidence to enter into commercial arrangements with local companies.

Four groups have negotiated biodiscovery plans with the Queensland Department of State Development, and EcoBiotics, a North Queensland-based company specialising in the early development of pharmaceuticals, is the first to be issued with a biodiscovery collection authority under the new legislation.

EcoBiotics CEO Dr Victoria Gordon said the formal agreement placed the company in a much stronger position.

"The Queensland biodiscovery legislation has increased the marketability of the company and our future products as it gives assurance to our potential clients, ie large international biotech and pharmaceutical companies, that our biodiscovery source material ownership and associated IP ownership is clear and well defined and will not be open to question at a later stage," she said.

Gordon said the Queensland biodiscovery policy was the first of its kind and complied with the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.

"Our biodiscovery activities on state governed lands is only just commencing," she said.

"Because this is such novel and groundbreaking legislation for the field, the Government has taken the time needed to get it right.

"We now have the appropriate collection permits and plan to commence collections in the coming weeks – we expect to be able to report some exciting developments early in 2008."

The Northern Territory has also had success with recent legislation. Since introducing the Biological Resources Act 2006, the state has seen interest from both Australian and international companies which are attracted to both the unique flora and fauna in the region, and the succinct legal framework to work within. There are now more than 45 commercial benefit sharing deeds entered between the NT and biodiscovery groups.

Murray Hird, director of industry development with the NT Department of Business, Economic and Regional Development, said having legislation in place was a much better system than approving bioprospecting permits on a case-by-case basis.

"There's a whole heap of certainties there that make the game easier to play," he said.

"So rather than a blank slate, there are some rules on the slate, but there's flexibility within those rules.

"We have no biotech companies here in the Northern Territory – publicly listed companies or private companies – though we do have a number of researchers working here. So the vast majority of them are external to the Northern Territory, and I would say that a significant majority are overseas based.

"They're here because of biological resources and our legislation which enables access to those resources."

Western Australia has no legal framework for bioprospecting, but is currently looking at the Queensland and NT systems to see if they could be adapted to suit WA. Western Australian researchers have been calling for a legislative framework for years.

Dr Bill Parker, director of WA-based protein analysis company Proteomics International, said there was no doubt WA's plant and animal resources contained useful bioactive molecules.

"There is no reason why we could not establish more commercial activity in WA to undertake the early phase work in drug discovery," he said.

"At present none of this is easy because of restrictive legislation."

WA Resources, Industry and Enterprise Minister Francis Logan said the delays were partly due to government departments not knowing whose responsibility it was to create biodiscovery legislation.

"The whole issue's been kicking around for years," he said.

"I always assumed it was under the minister for environment's portfolio, given that the bulk of the bioprospecting would be coming out of flora. I've since then found out that it came under me."

Logan, who has managed the Resources and Industry and Enterprise portfolios since December 2006, said that he only discovered the legislation was his responsibility in May this year. He wrote to the Department of Environment and Conservation and Department of Fisheries to see what had already been done to address the issue, then organised his department to look at the Queensland and Northern Territory legislations to see if they could be adapted to suit WA.

"[We asked] is it possible for us to simply copy their legislation?" he said. "That would be good for consistency across Australia anyway."

Logan said the previous delays may have caused missed opportunities.

"There may well have been breakthroughs identified from plant life and marine life here in Western Australia that could be in the market right now, by way of drugs or environmental compounds," he said.

"We'll try and get a green bill [a draft bill initially produced for consultation] prepared and out before Christmas for consult with the industry, get their views about what's in the bill – does it suit industry needs, and if it does, we'll only have to make minor modifications, then let's make those changes and finalise the drafting of the bill and introduce it next year."

With WA's South-West region being named one of the globe's 25 Biodiversity Hotspots by Conservation International, bioprospecting legislation in WA could enable the state to join Queensland and the NT in sourcing native Australian flora and fauna that may hold the key to new antibiotics and other medical treatments and products – while the states enjoy some handy profit-sharing along the way.

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