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How a Native American tribe came to own one of the world’s most valuable patents
Allergan, the drugmaker behind Botox, is using an unprecedented tactic to protect its valuable patents – angering lawyers and politicians, and keeping the price of its medicines high.
There has long been a debate about patents and traditional knowledge in developing countries.
Pharmaceutical companies in the West, like Allergan, are often accused of “bio-prospecting”.
They collect raw samples of traditional medicines and plants, whose healing properties have been known to locals for centuries, and patent modified extracts of the active ingredients.
(Under patent law…