PGR News from the Pacific

Posted 4:48 PM by Luigi

Bioprospecting in the Pacific: Who gets to benefit?

By Bill Aalbersberg, in Island Business. Professor Bill Aalbersberg is Director of USP's Institute of Applied Sciences. IAS aims to help Pacific Islands countries conserve and develop their resources sustainably (http://www.usp.ac.fj/ias/).

In the Verata district of Fiji, people turn to their Community Trust Fund for scholarship support for local students. In Faleaupo, Samoa, the cost of construction of a primary school was donated by a foundation in return for the community's conservation of their rainforest. Both the trust fund and the school's construction were made possible by bioprospecting.

Bioprospecting is the collection of plants and/or marine organisms by scientists looking for medicines that could be derived from the chemicals in the collected material.

Plants that have been used for traditional medicines, in many cases for thousands of years, are targeted. Evidence has shown that scientists have more than 10 times the chance of finding an active chemical in a medicinal plant than in a randomly collected one.

Besides medicinal plants, particularly valued are marine invertebrates such as sponges, soft corals and sea squirts, which are soft and colourful and move slowly, if at all (thus making them easy to collect), and tend to use strong chemical defences to prevent predation.

Time, money and expertise

A large number of medicines we buy at the pharmacy were discovered through bioprospecting. For example, the chemicals vinblastin and vincristine, now used in anti-leukemia drugs, were discovered in the ornamental rosy periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus). It is estimated that about one-third of the drugs prescribed in the United States-including aspirin, ephedrine, belladonna, penicillin, quinine, morphine, digitalis and many anti-cancer drugs-contain plant-derived components.

The process of drug discovery takes about 15 years from sample collection to having a marketable drug, and involves:

collection
activity testing
identifying the active chemical
making slight changes to the chemical to see if it improves activity
testing for toxicity
testing on animals and humans

It is estimated that only one in 10,000 chemicals investigated ends up as a saleable drug and the cost of coming up with one drug is US$800 million.

Who gets the benefits?

A major issue related to the work of bioprospecting is who benefits if medicines are found. In the past, plants and marine organisms were often collected from developing countries by Western researchers and the source country received little in return.

This neo-colonial “open access” policy was turned on its head by the 1993 Convention on Biological Diversity, which gave sovereign rights of biodiversity to the source country but encouraged them to allow access to outside researchers under mutually agreed terms.

Pacific countries have been slow to develop this so-called “access and benefit-sharing” legislation.

In the examples cited at the start of this article, it was the collecting group working with the local community who ensured that a wide range of benefits were made available to the source area. Responsible scientists understand the importance of preserving the biological diversity from which the chemicals come, and to further this preservation, they seek partnerships that will allow source communities to undertake conservation efforts.

Local organisms show promise

No chemical derived from a Pacific organism has yet been fully developed into a marketable drug. But several are showing promise.

A medicinal tree from Samoa called malamala (Homalanthus nutans), has been found to be active against HIV. United States scientists are trying to identify the gene that tells the plant to make the chemical.
A district in Fiji has licensed plants and marine organisms for testing in Japan and set up a conservation trust fund of US$30,000 with the proceeds.
An orange sponge (Jaspis coriacea) and the makita tree (Atuna racemosa) in Fiji have produced chemicals for medical research. The US company involved is giving 2-5% of the proceeds from sales to support further research in Fiji.
A chemical from a medicinal tree in Fiji has been patented as an anti-diabetes drug.
Chemicals from the sea hare (Dolabella auriculata) and another orange sponge (Jaspis johnstoni) are in advanced human trials for anti-cancer activity.
A red algae from Fiji has recently yielded a new class of chemical that is active in killing cancer cells and HIV.

The Universities of the South Pacific (USP) and Papua New Guinea (UPNG) are playing leading roles in the development of biodiversity by the use of biotechnology, having set up local enterprises to increase local ability to perform the work.

Both universities have received a prestigious International Cooperation in Biodiversity Grant given by the United States government to partnerships of US and overseas universities working to discover drugs and conserve biodiversity.

USP is working with the Georgia Institute of Technology and UPNG with the University of Utah, with funding of about US$3 million over a five-year period. USP's Institute of Applied Sciences (IAS) has set up a research unit in collaboration with the Regional Germplasm Centre of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), focusing on marine biotechnology such as DNA fingerprinting of sponges and soft corals.

Collaborations such as these are helping to bring benefits to the people of the Pacific and, ultimately, to the people of the world.



	A blog maintained by Tevita Kete, PGR Officer Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), Suva, Fiji Islands
This weblog documents the activities of Pacific Agricultural Genetic Resources Network (PAPGREN), along with other information on plant genetic resources (PGR) in the Pacific. The myriad varieties found within cultivated plants are fundamental to the present and future productivity of agriculture. PAPGREN, which is coordinated by the Land Resources Division of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), helps Pacific countries and territories to conserve their crop genetic diversity sustainably, with technical assistance from the Bioversity International (BI) and support from NZAID and ACIAR. SPC also hosts the Centre of Pacific Crops and Trees (CEPaCT). The CEPaCT maintains regional in vitro collections of crops important to the Pacific and carries out research on tissue culture technology. The CEPaCT Adviser is Dr Mary Taylor (MaryT@spc.int), the CEPaCT Curator is Ms Valerie Tuia (ValerieT@spc.int). PAPGREN coordination and support IPGRI ACIAR NZAID CTA SPC PAPGREN CEPaCT Click on the thumbnail to see a map of the locations of Pacific genebanks. Click here to download a regional directory of genebanks in the Pacific, including information on their location, contact details and holdings. PAPGREN partners Mr William Wigmore Director of Research Ministry of Agriculture Department of Resources & Development P.O. Box 96 Rarotonga Cook Islands Tel: (682) 28711-29720 Fax: (682) 21881 Email: cimoa@oyster.net.ck Mr Adelino S. Lorens Chief Agriculture Pohnpei Office of Economic Affairs P.O. Box 1028 Kolonia Pohnpei 96941 Federated States of Micronesia Tel: (691) 3202400 Fax: (691) 3202127 Email: pniagriculture@mail.fm Dr Lois Englberger Island Food Community of Pohnpei Research Advisor P.O. Box 2299 Kolonia Pohnpei 96941 Federated States of Micronesia Email: nutrition@mail.fm Mr Apisai Ucuboi Director of Research Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries & Forest Koronivia Research Station P.O. Box 77 Nausori Fiji Islands Tel: (679) 3477044 Fax: (679) 3477546-400262 Email: apisainu@yahoo.com Dr Maurice Wong Service du Developpement Rural B.P. 100 Papeete Tahiti 98713 French Polynesia Tel: (689) 42 81 44 Fax: (689) 42 08 31 Email: maurice.wong@rural.gov.pf Mr Tianeti Beenna Ioane Head, Research Section Division of Agriculture Ministry of Environment, Lands and Agricultural Development P.O. Box 267 Tarawa Kiribati Tel: (686) 28096-28108-28080 Fax: (686) 28121 Email : agriculture@tskl.net.ki; Beenna_ti@yahoo.com Mr Frederick Muller Secretary Ministry of Resources & Development P.O. Box 1727 Majuro 96960 Marshall Islands Tel: (692) 6253206 Fax: (692) 6257471 Email: rndsec@ntamar.net Mr Herman Francisco Director Bureau of Agriculture Ministry of Resources & Development P.O. Box 460 Koror 96940 Palau Tel: (680) 4881517 Fax: (680) 4881725 Email: bnrd@pnccwg.palaunet.com Ms Rosa Kambuou Principal Scientist PGR NARI Dry Lowlands Programme Laloki Agricultural Research Station P.O. Box 1828 Boroko National Capital District Papua New Guinea Tel: (675) 3235511 Fax: (675) 3234733 Email: kambuou@global.net.pg Ms Laisene Samuelu Principal Crop Development Officer Crops Division Ministry of Agriculture, Forests, Fisheries & Meteorology P.O. Box 1874 Apia Samoa Tel: (685) 23416-20605 Fax: (685) 20607-23996 Email: lsamuelu@lesamoa.net Mr Jimi Saelea Director of Research Department of Agriculture and Livestock P.O. Box G13 Honiara Guadalcanal Solomon Islands Tel: (677) 27987 Mr Tony Jansen Planting Materials Network Kastom Gaden Association Burns Creek, Honiara P.O. Box 742 Honiara Solomon Islands Tel: (677) 39551 Email: kastomgaden@solomon.com.sb Mr Finao Pole Head of Research Ministry of Agriculture & Forests P.O. Box 14 Nuku'alofa Tonga Tel: (676) 23038 Fax: (676) 24271 Email: thaangana@hotmail.com Mr Frazer Bule Lehi Head of Research Department of Agriculture & Rural Development Private Mail Bag 040 Port Vila Vanuatu Tel: (678) 22525 Fax: (678) 25265 Email: flehi@hotmail.com Other links Other CROP agencies Forum Secretariat University of the South Pacific SPREP Pacific biodiversity Biodiversity hotspots Breadfruit Institute Hawaiian native plants Intellectual property rights Nature Conservancy PBIF PestNet SIDS WWF South Pacific Program Other Pacific organizations Foundation of the Peoples of the South Pacific Micronesian Seminar Te Puna web directory Pacific news Cafe Pacific CocoNET Wireless Island Directory Pacific Islands News Pacific Islands Report Pacific Islands Travel Pacific Time South Pacific travel Time Pacific Interested in GIS? DIVA-GIS	Monday, December 05, 2005 Posted 4:48 PM by Luigi Bioprospecting in the Pacific: Who gets to benefit? By Bill Aalbersberg, in Island Business. Professor Bill Aalbersberg is Director of USP's Institute of Applied Sciences. IAS aims to help Pacific Islands countries conserve and develop their resources sustainably (http://www.usp.ac.fj/ias/). In the Verata district of Fiji, people turn to their Community Trust Fund for scholarship support for local students. In Faleaupo, Samoa, the cost of construction of a primary school was donated by a foundation in return for the community's conservation of their rainforest. Both the trust fund and the school's construction were made possible by bioprospecting. Bioprospecting is the collection of plants and/or marine organisms by scientists looking for medicines that could be derived from the chemicals in the collected material. Plants that have been used for traditional medicines, in many cases for thousands of years, are targeted. Evidence has shown that scientists have more than 10 times the chance of finding an active chemical in a medicinal plant than in a randomly collected one. Besides medicinal plants, particularly valued are marine invertebrates such as sponges, soft corals and sea squirts, which are soft and colourful and move slowly, if at all (thus making them easy to collect), and tend to use strong chemical defences to prevent predation. Time, money and expertise A large number of medicines we buy at the pharmacy were discovered through bioprospecting. For example, the chemicals vinblastin and vincristine, now used in anti-leukemia drugs, were discovered in the ornamental rosy periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus). It is estimated that about one-third of the drugs prescribed in the United States-including aspirin, ephedrine, belladonna, penicillin, quinine, morphine, digitalis and many anti-cancer drugs-contain plant-derived components. The process of drug discovery takes about 15 years from sample collection to having a marketable drug, and involves: collection activity testing identifying the active chemical making slight changes to the chemical to see if it improves activity testing for toxicity testing on animals and humans It is estimated that only one in 10,000 chemicals investigated ends up as a saleable drug and the cost of coming up with one drug is US$800 million. Who gets the benefits? A major issue related to the work of bioprospecting is who benefits if medicines are found. In the past, plants and marine organisms were often collected from developing countries by Western researchers and the source country received little in return. This neo-colonial “open access” policy was turned on its head by the 1993 Convention on Biological Diversity, which gave sovereign rights of biodiversity to the source country but encouraged them to allow access to outside researchers under mutually agreed terms. Pacific countries have been slow to develop this so-called “access and benefit-sharing” legislation. In the examples cited at the start of this article, it was the collecting group working with the local community who ensured that a wide range of benefits were made available to the source area. Responsible scientists understand the importance of preserving the biological diversity from which the chemicals come, and to further this preservation, they seek partnerships that will allow source communities to undertake conservation efforts. Local organisms show promise No chemical derived from a Pacific organism has yet been fully developed into a marketable drug. But several are showing promise. A medicinal tree from Samoa called malamala (Homalanthus nutans), has been found to be active against HIV. United States scientists are trying to identify the gene that tells the plant to make the chemical. A district in Fiji has licensed plants and marine organisms for testing in Japan and set up a conservation trust fund of US$30,000 with the proceeds. An orange sponge (Jaspis coriacea) and the makita tree (Atuna racemosa) in Fiji have produced chemicals for medical research. The US company involved is giving 2-5% of the proceeds from sales to support further research in Fiji. A chemical from a medicinal tree in Fiji has been patented as an anti-diabetes drug. Chemicals from the sea hare (Dolabella auriculata) and another orange sponge (Jaspis johnstoni) are in advanced human trials for anti-cancer activity. A red algae from Fiji has recently yielded a new class of chemical that is active in killing cancer cells and HIV. The Universities of the South Pacific (USP) and Papua New Guinea (UPNG) are playing leading roles in the development of biodiversity by the use of biotechnology, having set up local enterprises to increase local ability to perform the work. Both universities have received a prestigious International Cooperation in Biodiversity Grant given by the United States government to partnerships of US and overseas universities working to discover drugs and conserve biodiversity. USP is working with the Georgia Institute of Technology and UPNG with the University of Utah, with funding of about US$3 million over a five-year period. USP's Institute of Applied Sciences (IAS) has set up a research unit in collaboration with the Regional Germplasm Centre of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), focusing on marine biotechnology such as DNA fingerprinting of sponges and soft corals. Collaborations such as these are helping to bring benefits to the people of the Pacific and, ultimately, to the people of the world. * Comments: Post a Comment	Archive October 2002 November 2002 December 2002 January 2003 February 2003 March 2003 April 2003 May 2003 June 2003 July 2003 August 2003 September 2003 October 2003 November 2003 December 2003 January 2004 February 2004 March 2004 April 2004 May 2004 June 2004 July 2004 August 2004 September 2004 October 2004 November 2004 December 2004 January 2005 February 2005 March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 December 2007 January 2008 February 2008 March 2008 April 2008 May 2008 June 2008 July 2008 August 2008 September 2008 October 2008 November 2008 December 2008 January 2009 February 2009 March 2009 April 2009 May 2009 June 2009 July 2009 August 2009 September 2009 October 2009 November 2009 January 2010 RSS Feed Alternative feed Contact Tevita Something new: Agrobiodiversity Weblog: For discussions of conservation and sustainable use of the genetic resources of crops, livestock and their wild relatives. 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