Benefit sharing in international collaborative health research : the context of South African biobanks

Abstract

A review of unresolved practical challenges related to benefit sharing reveals that various perspectives on benefit sharing are somewhat unclear, highlighting the necessity to formulate how the benefits of research should be distributed. An analysis of the current South African scientific community landscape in terms of resources for biobanking activities and research is relevant and thus provided in the paper to determine what benefit sharing should be when biomaterial and data are transferred from biobanks in South Africa to High Income Countries in international collaborative health research. Benefit sharing in the context of cross-border transfers has not been effectively addressed in South Africa, although identifying the relevant components of benefit sharing models can provide useful assistance in this regard. A benefit sharing model should include benefit sharing for all stakeholders in biobank research activities, such as addressing capacity and infrastructure needs, sharing equitable intellectual property benefits, and participating community benefits, while avoiding commodification of biobank materials.