%0 Journal Article %T BIO-PROSPECTING, IPR, TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE AND ITS TRADE SECRETS %A Lad Meenal Deepak %A Kumar Naresh %J International Research Journal of Pharmacy %D 2012 %I International Research Journal of Pharmacy %X Bio-prospecting involves searching for collecting, and deriving genetic material from samples of bio-diversity that can be used in commercialized pharmaceutical, agricultural, industrial, or chemical processing end products. Salient features of Bio-prospecting are: Conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, Rights of traditional, indigenous knowledge holders; fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the research, indigenous knowledge, intellectual property, or application of biological resources. The meaningful participation in these processes by traditional, indigenous knowledge holders.As far as Bio-prospecting & final commercial manufacturing company is concerned certain larger pharmaceutical companies operate their own Bio-prospecting units. They can develop a commercial drug from an idea to Bio-prospecting for genetic material, clinical trial, manufacturing & marketing.Herbal medicines are not marketed as pharmaceuticals & are not regulated by FDA. These drugs lack in quality control & mostly sold as dietary supplements. Pharmaceutical industries ordinarily synthesize compounds from a limited amount of natural products & the Herbal medicine industries usually don¡¯t attempt to do so because of high cost involved for the relatively low return. Pharmaceutical Bio-prospecting involves high returns & requires low volume harvesting.The convential biological diversities are an international protocol which gives expression to the novel idea that the Bio-prospecting process could yield conservation & develop benefits. The Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement) under the World Trade Organization (WTO) is the pre-eminent international agreement governing intellectual property rights. It covers a broad range of intellectual property rights, including copyright, trademarks, geographical indications, trade secrets, and patents. Along with TRIPS a focuses given to rights of traditional indigenous knowledge holder & some article related with this & regarding fair & equitable benefit sharing has been elaborately discussed. Next in the article three approaches of Bio-prospecting for new drug discovery has been given. In case of Bio-prospecting Intellectual Property Rights are often preserved by patents which protect the rights of holder to benefit financially so indigenous knowledge holders of native healing remedies need not fear the loss of use of native biodiversities. Also Bio-prospecting provides monetary & Non-monetary benefits. Lastly the business potential of Bio-prospecting in Indian context in futu %K Bio-Prospecting %K IPR %K Traditional Knowledge %K Trade Secrets. %U http://www.irjponline.com/admin/php/uploads/1420_pdf.pdf