Support Biopiracy or Lose Your Jobs?

Poor, biodiverse countries are upset when they get nothing, as Big Pharma currently takes genetic codes from 'their' organisms, to develop new drugs. These countries sometimes call this 'biopiracy'. They have consequently advocated the introduction of a biodiversity drug levy to give them some compensation. A senior representative of AstraZeneca, at a DEFRA meeting, has now threatened that, if the UK government supports the levy, there could be cuts in UK jobs (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/oct/25/astrazeneca-uk-jobs-biodiversity-drug-levy). This AstraZeneca response is a rather unsubtle move to protect company profits. One could reasonably argue that a levy would provide a financial incentive to biodiverse countries to remain biodiverse. Otherwise, such countries won't value what they have and might well destroy species-rich environments to develop more farmland etc. It's actually somewhat predictable that AstraZeneca is taking this line. The Swedish Astra arm of the conglomerate, made its early cash from cocaine. This was when, coca leaf extract was regarded as a wonder drug (used e.g. by the then Pope and Queen Victoria). Astra gave nothing to the Peruvian natives who had identified cocaine's properties. The company became very rich. I guess they would like to continue in this way.