Greater protection for indigenous knowledge raises costs, which can limit drug development.

[John K. Reid, Special Projects/Technology Editor, 3rd year Oklahoma College of Law student, 1-1-2009, American Indian Law Review, Volume 34, Number 1, “Biopiracy: The Struggle for Traditional Knowledge Rights,” https://digitalcommons.law.ou.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1121&context=ailr, 6-30-24, EP]

Offering greater protection may force companies to contract and give Indigenous peoples further bargaining power during contract negotiations. Anything that limits pharmaceutical companies' rights to resources, however, has the potential to limit drug development. With past contracts, availability of resources did not always mean results. Merck's contract with Costa Rica did not yield any new drugs. Shaman's contracts did yield a few medical developments, but they did so at such a cost that Shaman ended up in bankruptcy. The more control indigenous peoples have over these resources, the more expensive access to them will become, leading to a decrease in development.