How profits from big pharma’s use of genetic information could revolutionise nature conservation

The blood of rare horseshoe crabs is sometimes used in the development of vaccines. Sinhyu Photographer/Shutterstock

The blue blood of threatened horseshoe crabs contains a chemical essential for testing the safety of vaccines. So these ancient creatures are highly sought after by pharmaceutical companies worldwide, contributing to declines in their populations.

While species are disappearing at alarming rates, with a global biodiversity financing gap of US$600 billion to US$800 billion (£460 billion to £610 billion) annually, the genetic information of rare plants and animals is a commercially valuable resource.