WHO and KEI Explore Community Rights in Traditional Medicine Research and Innovation

Artificial intelligence and digital technologies are opening opportunities for traditional medicine research, raising difficult questions about ownership, consent and attribution.

Traditional medicine knowledge can open new paths for research and drug discovery, but the people who share that knowledge need a meaningful say in how it is used and how its benefits are distributed. Those concerns shaped an event co-organized by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) on 22 September 2026, bringing together experts from international organizations, academia, governments and civil society on the sidelines of the World Intellectual Property Organization's (WIPO) 53rd IGC meeting.

The event, Intellectual Property and Traditional Medicine: Rethinking Access, Benefit Sharing and Data Governance, examined how intellectual property rules, access and benefit-sharing arrangements, and data governance could support innovation and safeguard the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities. Moderator Dr Suerie Moon, Co-Director of the Global Health Centre at the Graduate Institute, called it a "very timely topic," pointing to rapid changes in technology and the legal and policy frameworks that shape how traditional medicine knowledge is accessed, protected and used.

Community rights belong at the centre of research

Opening the discussion, Manjeet Singh Saluja of the WHO Global Traditional Medicine Centre described the need to advance safe, effective and evidence-informed traditional medicine through an approach that protects knowledge, recognizes community rights and safeguards biodiversity. He outlined WHO's work on an intellectual property toolkit for traditional medicine and a framework for respectful knowledge exchange with Indigenous Peoples. These initiatives address a practical concern running through the discussion: expanding research opportunities requires clear expectations about how knowledge is shared and how the people responsible for it participate.

Participants emphasized that Indigenous Peoples and local communities should be recognized as partners in the stewardship and governance of their knowledge, with an active role in decisions about its use. Discussions about prior informed consent and equitable benefit-sharing connected that principle to the design of traditional medicine databases. The questions extend beyond whether researchers can access information to whether communities have authorized its use, whether their contributions remain identifiable and whether arrangements provide a fair share of the resulting benefits.

AI creates opportunities and makes attribution harder

Artificial intelligence and digital technologies are opening opportunities for traditional medicine research, raising difficult questions about ownership, consent and attribution. Margo A. Bagley of Emory University explained that AI could accelerate drug discovery based on traditional medicine knowledge, although tracing the contributions of individual knowledge holders could become more difficult. Her observations highlighted why faster research needs governance that preserves the connection between knowledge and its sources, so the communities contributing to an innovation remain visible when recognition and benefit-sharing decisions are made.

James Love, Director of KEI, presented findings from two draft WHO papers examining legal and intellectual property considerations for traditional medicine databases, including the difficulty of protecting community rights across different jurisdictions. He proposed federated data governance and tailored benefit-sharing arrangements to support trusted evidence generation and equitable remuneration. These proposals brought attention to how databases are governed, how responsibilities are assigned and how research systems can accommodate community rights when knowledge is accessed or used across national borders.

A global treaty needs ratification and practical follow-through

Guilherme de Aguiar Patriota, Brazil's Ambassador to the World Trade Organization, described the recently adopted WIPO Treaty on Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge as a major step toward transparency and recognition of Indigenous Peoples and local communities within the international intellectual property system. He stressed the need for ratifications and effective implementation. Closing the event, Saluja called for governance that respects community rights and authority, preserves attribution and provenance, supports equitable benefit-sharing and makes data use responsible and traceable. Moon thanked WHO and KEI for addressing the complexity of intellectual property and traditional medicine knowledge through "concrete proposals."