Bioprospecting + Biopiracy

It’s long been known that the future of medicine, and possibly of the entire world’s health, probably lies in the plants of the jungles, rainforests and deserts. But with the growing attempts of pharmaceutical companies to patent these plants, the question of who controls them becomes increasingly important.

Pharmaceutical companies have filed patents on thousands of plants. For example: brazzeine, a protein 500 times sweeter than sugar from a plant in Gabon; thaumatin, a natural sweetener from a plant in West Africa; the African soap berry and the Kunde Zulu cowpea; genetic material from the west African cocoa plant.

A number of developing countries are fighting back to protect their food from biological alteration. India overturned American patents for basmati rice and wound-healing turmeric. Thailand is appealing a patent on jasmine rice.

South Africa’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research agreed to share royalties with the country’s San people after they threatened a lawsuit over the Hoodia cactus plant in the Kalahari desert. The San have long eaten pieces of the plant to stave off hunger and thirst. After the CSIR found the molecule in the cactus that curbs appetite, they sold the rights to develop an anti-obesity drug to pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, who claimed they thought the tribe was extinct.

The UN Convention on Biological Diversity, ratified by 183 countries and in force since 1993, recognises the sovereignty of states and communities over their genetic resources.

But the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights agreement of the World Trade Organisation doesn’t. Since 1995, the WTO requires member countries to comply with TRIPS.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 20th, 2007 at 10:04 pm and is filed under Under-reported. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site. Add to del.icio.us.