The import of biological research material is a silent barrier to biotechnology in the Global South

the-import-of-biological-research-material-is-a-silent-barrier-to-biotechnology-in-the-global-south

Biotechnology research, patents and companies are heavily concentrated in high-income countries. Barriers to biotechnology adoption in the Global South are often described as large structural challenges, including regulatory quality, infrastructure gaps, limited investment, weak public–private linkages and underdeveloped entrepreneurial ecosystems1,2,3. While these factors are critical, this Correspondence spotlights a more practical and often overlooked barrier: the persistent challenge of importing biological research materials at a reasonable cost, within acceptable timeframes, and with manageable regulatory complexity (Box 1). We discuss how this basic hurdle stalls progress before research and innovation can even begin, and suggest actionable improvements that could help unlock biotechnological innovation in the Global South.

The following quotes highlight key challenges faced by scientists, entrepreneurs and established companies trying to access biological research material from outside major biotech hubs.

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Acknowledgements

The authors state that the views expressed herein are exclusively their responsibility and do not necessarily reflect the positions of the Inter-American Development Bank, its board of directors, or the countries they represent.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Center for Transformation, Economics and Business School, Universidad Nacional de San Martín (CENIT-EEyN-UNSAM) / National Council of Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET), San Martín, Argentina

    Gabriela Bortz & Lilia Stubrin

  2. Inter-American Development Bank, Washington, DC, USA

    Rafael Anta

Authors

  1. Gabriela Bortz
  2. Lilia Stubrin
  3. Rafael Anta

Contributions

G.B.: conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, investigation, methodology, project administration, visualization, writing – original draft, writing – review & editing. L.S.: conceptualization, formal analysis, methodology, project administration, supervision, validation, visualization, writing – original draft, writing – review & editing. R.A.: funding acquisition, resources, validation, writing – review & editing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gabriela Bortz.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Bortz, G., Stubrin, L. & Anta, R. The import of biological research material is a silent barrier to biotechnology in the Global South. Nat Biotechnol (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-025-02903-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-025-02903-6