Summit TV speaks to Dr Joe Molete chief executive of Biotechnology Partnerships and Development (BioPAD) and William Modisakeng from Adams & Adams about the laws around biotechnology research and the upcoming Bio2Biz SA 2008 Conference.

Stephan Lamprecht: Welcome to the Intellectual Property show. Last week we spoke about the impact of the developing biotechnology sector on the management of intellectual property and this week we’re discussing new legislation impacting on those doing business in this sector with William Modisakeng from Adams & Adams and Dr Joe Molete chief executive of BioPAD. Joe, what is BioPAD and what is your mandate with regards to the biotech sector?

Joe Molete: BioPAD is a trust initiated by the Department of Science & Technology and our mandate really is to grow the biotech industry in South Africa…

Stephan Lamprecht: Has it grown? Are you seeing that growth?

Joe Molete: It is growing. Of course it’s a new industry - we have a number of challenges that we are dealing with - but there has been some progress in the last four years…

Stephan Lamprecht: William, from your point of view - last time we spoke about the different motivations for intellectual property (IP) management, and if you’re in the biotech business what you should consider - but let’s get more specific, with the different laws that are being introduced what do I need to consider if I’m in the biotech business?

William Modisakeng: Last time we spoke we made reference to a couple of things - we spoke about legal developments, we referred to the Biodiversity Act that came into force 1 April 2008...

Stephan Lamprecht: What does the Biodiversity Act say?

William Modisakeng: The Biodiversity Act is provided by government to protect our natural resources, and at the same time provides the means to protect traditional knowledge that’s used to initiate or to support the development of biotech products…

Stephan Lamprecht: Of course that is critical. One of the key things when we talk about our biotech sector is we always talk about biodiversity - that’s a key issue where we have a competitive edge in terms of the rest of the world. We have to protect that - and that’s the intention behind the Biodiversity Act…

William Modisakeng: That’s exactly our intention with the Biodiversity Act. One main aspect of the Biodiversity Act is it’s had a negative impact on research - in that it’s now putting a burden on researchers to comply with certain requirements even before they can begin with their research, and there’s certain things they need to do like get permits for instance to do bio-prospecting. So it requires more from the side of researchers - but we hope that it will not have a negative impact stifling research and stopping people from thinking of doing biotech research and going to other countries…

Stephan Lamprecht: But if I want to set up a shop on the corner I can’t just do that - I’ve got to get some kind of permit to do that as well - so this is just bringing biotech into the mainstream of economic activity…

William Modisakeng: I think it’s important that the Act itself be de-mystified. There are certain things that people think - only yesterday there was a workshop where people were talking about demystifying the Act, and that’s very important. We give advice on how to comply with the Act and what’s required…

Stephan Lamprecht: Joe, before we go to the other new legislation from your point of view the Biodiversity Act - how do you see that impacting?

Joe Molete: I think with all the Acts that are coming up it’s just a sign to show that the industry is growing, and we need to do something to protect and make sure that people know which channels to follow. Also, in the past we have seen people coming bio-prospecting to South Africa - and we just need to make sure that whatever is in South Africa stays in South Africa and is protected.

Stephan Lamprecht: And the benefits accrue to South Africa...

Joe Molete: Definitely. That’s what we are all about here...

Stephan Lamprecht: You also mentioned the Indigenous Knowledge Act (IKS) from the Department of Trade & Industry…

William Modisakeng: The Act is mainly to protect the use of indigenous knowledge - but not only to protect it, but to protect it using modern IP protection means - for instance already we have the Patent Amendments Act that I talked about last time where it’s a requirement when applying for a patent that you need to declare that either you used or did not use South African biodiversity material. There’s also now suggested amendments into the Designs Act where you will have not only functional and aesthetic designs - what you will also have is traditional designs that also speak to the user of geographic indicators that are linked to traditional knowledge.

Stephan Lamprecht: One thing that comes to mind that people would recognise is “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” the Disney song that is something that came from rural South Africa - and why don’t we benefit from the use of that? Outside the three areas we’ve mentioned - the Biodiversity Act, the Indigenous Knowledge Act and the Patent Amendments Act…

William Modisakeng: These are the main ones that one should concentrate on now. There is the Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) Act in terms of which certain things need to be complied with to introduce genetically modified organisms into the country. Amongst some of those that’s creating a stir is the requirement for what we call an impact assessment. That’s causing a big stir - there’s been a couple of amendments to the Act already that are lying on my desk and need to be looked at…

Stephan Lamprecht: Joe, from your point of view?

Joe Molete: The other one that’s important is the Intellectual Property Right for Publicly Financed Research - there was a workshop yesterday that we attended, and again the point of this Act is also to make sure that the intellectual property that accrues from the research funded by government money benefits South Africa.

Stephan Lamprecht: If I consider all this new legislation - I’m an entrepreneur, and entrepreneurship is already difficult as it is and biotech even more so - how does your organisation BioPAD and elsewhere in government assist entrepreneurs in making sense of all these new introductions and navigating a course through it?

Joe Molete: Our organisation plays a critical role because we find ourselves in the middle. On the one hand we are accountable to the government - they give us money to grow the industry so we finance a lot of entrepreneurs, on the other side there’s a lot of entrepreneurs who bring business plans and they have a lot of challenges that we see. So one thing that we are trying to do at BioPAD is really to put mechanisms in place to support the entrepreneurs. In the past we were merely viewed as funders - people approached us when they needed money - but we are seeing that needs to change so now we deal with the entrepreneurs and we are more involved in the businesses and we are helping them.

Stephan Lamprecht: In that process I would imagine you also influence government policy and the roll out of these very Acts?

Joe Molete: Most definitely.

Stephan Lamprecht: Joe, BioPAD will also be hosting the Bio2Biz conference later this year - tell us briefly about that…

Joe Molete: A critical point. Bio2Biz is a conference that is hosted by the innovation centres that are in South Africa. The purpose of it is really to inform the public - we get academic people, we get government and business people together to make sure that they can share and exchange ideas of what is happening in the biotech industry.

Stephan Lamprecht: So it’s a must attend if you are in the biotech industry?

Joe Molete: The annual conference is from 15 to 17 September at the Sandton Convention Centre.