Frog tales – on poison dart frogs, epibatidine, and the sharing of biodiversity

Abstract

Epibatidine is an alkaloid originally extracted in the 1970s from the skin secretions of a tiny poison frog from Ecuador. Today it is a major research tool in the development of analgesics, and several epibatidine derivatives are promising drug leads. Unsurprisingly, the relationships between the Ecuadorian state and local communities on the one hand and the drug companies on the other have been contested for several years, owing to claims of traditional use concerning the frogs’ poison. Although this case can hardly be considered biopiracy, it presents great difficulties in determining whether traditional knowledge has been used, as well as the problems involved in applying the access and benefit-sharing regulations of the Convention on Biological Diversity. This article highlights that research objects tend to be unstable, compared with the rather static assumptions of intellectual property rights and other legal frameworks concerning the use of biodiversity.