LATIN AMERICAN R&D WOES: STRONGER IP ONE POSSIBLE SOLUTION?

Did you know: that although researchers at the Autonomous National University of Mexico (UNAM) discovered that the saliva of the vampire bat is a better blood-coagulating agent than those existing on the market at the time, the Schering corporation, who supported the Mexican scientists' research, eventually claimed ownership of the discovery and sold the patent without compensating UNAM.

This piece of R&D trivia is but one example of a technological success turned financial failure facing many Latin American companies and countries.According to an article in Inter Press Service News Agency, this frustrating cycle of lost opportunity is due to many factors including a culture that does not value or perceive the necessity of intellectual property protections. According to one scientist familiar with the issues:

among the region's scientists ''there is a lack of a culture of intellectual property protection, of registering patents,'' Carlos Vogt, head of Sao Paulo state's research foundation, a leading Brazilian science and technology funder, told Tierramerica.

I was surprised by the fact that in Chile, the state provides 64 percent of total investment in R&D while 20 percent comes from the private sector and the remaining 15 percent is derived from foreign investment. This is a fairly large investment by the Chilean governement -- the problem, a lack of strong enforceable intellectual property rights that help convert the technology/knowledge into wealth.

A final sobering example:

Cuba has an educational level similar to that of industrialised countries. There are 559 people working in R&D for every 100,000 inhabitants of the island, more than triple the proportion in Brazil and 2.5 times that of Mexico.

''But the existence of knowledge in itself doesn't in any way guarantee results,'' warned a Cuban economist who requested anonymity. Many obstacles prevent ''the conversion of knowledge into wealth for society,'' such as an insufficient articulation between R&D and the productive sector, a scarcity of capital for research, lack of intellectual property protections and the absence of an integral strategy, said the source.

Stronger intellectual property rights help convert national research, knowledge and technology into greater societal wealth.