Colhendo os Frutos dos Bio-Recursos

This paper captures remarks presented to an audience of biotech scientists and those who manage their research. It evaluates the prospects for injecting new biotech inventions into the industrial base, taking into view the characteristics of Brazilian institutions, particularly the intellectual property regime and the judicial system. The paper notes that Brazilian inventors are creative and prolifi c. Still, government funds for support of their work beyond the moment of invention are scarce. As is the case in most countries, private money is required to complete the work of transferring technology into useful activity. Because private money has become mostly global in its search new technology, Brazilian inventors compete with inventors elsewhere in the world for private money. The paper considers the degree to which Brazil puts its inven-tors at a competitive disadvantage because of gaps in intellectual property protection and a partly dysfunctional judicial system.