Natural Medicines--Profit for Source Countries

FOR RELEASE: Mon., April 7 ACS News Service
Contacts:
Print media: Sophie Wilkinson, 202/872-4443, [email protected]
Broadcast media: Theresa Laranang-Mutlu, 202/872-4371, [email protected]
For a copy of the full article: Sally Pecor, 202/872-4451, [email protected]

NATURAL MEDICINES YIELD PROFIT FOR SOURCE COUNTRIES

The search for potential pharmaceuticals derived from indigenous natural medicines -- marred in the bad old days by exploitation of local Third-World populations -- has now been refined to funnel significant benefits to these groups, according to an extensive article in the April 7 issue of Chemical & Engineering News, the weekly news magazine of the American Chemical Society. In the past a company might simply have paid a token sum for a sample of a beneficial plant used by traditional healers. But now the emphasis is shifting to formalized programs involving profit sharing, support for conservation and the development of sustainable economic activities in the source country.

Such reforms are a goal of the International Cooperative Biodiversity Groups (ICBG) program, which is currently being evaluated for possible extension. Established in 1993 by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Agency for International Development, the groups operate in Latin America and Africa. Most include U.S. researchers from academe or government and a pharmaceutical company, as well as local representatives. The groups are searching for treatments or preventatives for cancer, AIDS, malaria, mental disorders, and other ailments. Plants that are of interest include a foul-smelling fruit used by the Achuar Jivaro people of Peru to treat fungal infections and a vine whose leaves are brewed into a tea by Tirio Amerindians of Suriname for stomachaches. Some groups are also looking at drugs from insects such as fireflies.

Conflicts of interest have naturally arisen in these exchanges. In Peru, for example, the indigenous Aguarunas "were concerned that sharing their knowledge with ICBG would mean they would lose their ability to use their plants in their traditional ways," the article says. But once the Aguarunas were made aware of the researchers' motives, trust began to build. At the end of the negotiations, "the Aguaruna leaders expressed their agreement metaphorically, saying that giving their plants to Monsanto is like giving a daughter, and that Monsanto should 'take good care of her.'"

Of course the ultimate goal of all this work is to find a blockbuster drug. For the source country, this could prove a windfall. Costa Rica, for example, has an annual national budget close in size to that of Cornell University. So royalties of a few percent of sales on a billion-dollar drug could have a significant impact on the country's economy. But even if the research doesn't yield such a drug, the program sponsors will be satisfied with their results. The program trains high school teachers and Ph.D. students, establishes clinics, equips labs and helps to repair the environment in the source countries. Dr. Brian Schuster of Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Washington, D.C., explains in the article that "we want to make sure that our programs are front-loaded with infrastructure building, so that when we walk away, the host countries will have the people and the means to continue making use of their herbal knowledge."

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