Ayahuasca is a psychoactive beverage commonly consumed by indigenous people of the Amazon, traditionally used in religious and medicinal rituals. Scientific research has recently corroborated the indigenous belief on the beverage’s healing powers when it comes to psychoneurological disorders. It was verified that a single dosage of Ayahuasca can help lower depression severity in patients resistant to the usual treatments. Considering the epidemic state of the disorder in the present day, there is enormous potential for developing new kinds of treatment, which will be enabled through pharmaceutical patents. However, the indigenous communities behind those scientific and pharmaceutical studies must not be forgotten. In this article, utilizing literature and previous studies to support our views and our arguments, we analyze the protection of the traditional medicine and knowledge related to Ayahuasca consumption in light of intellectual property rights, as well as the indigenous people’s rights to be involved in the results brought by the future pharmaceutical patents arising from Ayahuasca exploration. The method used is the deductive and the research technique is the bibliographical. It is structured in introduction, development, conclusions and bibliography. KEYWORDS: Ayahuasca, depression, intellectual property, traditional medicine, traditional knowledge, fairtrade