The much deadlier potential of H5N1 may change that thinking as developing nations become more concerned about getting pandemic vaccine than seasonal vaccine, Cox said.

The H5N1 virus has killed millions of birds and infected at least 241 people, 141 of whom have died. Scientists are concerned that millions more people may die if H5N1 mutates into a form that spreads easily from human to human.

The new program will collaborate with Cambia, a Canberra, Australia-based non-profit research organization, and Science Commons, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to write agreements and patents that will allow the flu strains to be shared, said Peter Bogner, the program's director.

"Intellectual property is the most important part of this," he said yesterday in a telephone interview. Bogner said his background is in licensing media, and that he became involved in a health-care project for the first time because of the threat of a pandemic.

Public databases

Countries that join the data-sharing program will post their genetic sequence data in public databases, such as those at GenBank, run by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Bogner said. Companies that want to use the viruses will be able to obtain them from laboratories that do bird flu testing, such as those affiliated with the World Health Organization.

The idea of licensing biological products or organisms, as in H5N1's case, isn't new. For instance, GlaxoSmithKline Plc's Rotarix vaccine for diarrheal disease was developed from a virus Cincinnati Children's Hospital licensed to Glaxo's partner Avant Immunotherapeutics Inc. in exchange for royalties.

Increasingly, companies have paid poorer countries or their indigenous populations for biological materials isolated from plants used in traditional medicines or other sources.

New Approach

The new program's approach appears to offer benefits for all parties that might be involved, said Michael Gollin, founder of Public Interest Intellectual Property Advisors in Washington, which also gives assistance to developing countries on intellectual property rights.

"If the countries that have the viruses can get preferential treatment on access to vaccines and drugs, then there's incentive to participate," said Gollin, who said he has helped Kenyan tribes negotiate rights to a molecule used in a fabric softener, among other projects. "The leverage seems to be there."