Biopiracy of natural products and good bioprospecting practice

Thomas Efferth; Mita Banerjee; Norbert W Paul; Sara Abdelfatah; Joachim Arend; Gihan Elhassan; Sami Hamdoun; Rebecca Hamm; Chunlan Hong; Onat Kadioglu; Janine Naß; Dominic Ochwangi; Edna Ooko; Nadire Ozenver; Mohamed E M Saeed; Mathias Schneider; Ean-Jeong Seo; Ching-Fen Wu; Ge Yan; Maen Zeino; Qiaoli Zhao; Mohammad S Abu-Darwish; Kai Andersch; Gladys Alexie; Dawn Bessarab; Dipita Bhakta-Guha; Vanderlan Bolzani; Else Dapat; Fedor V Donenko; Monika Efferth; Henry J Greten; Leslie Gunatilaka; Ahmed A Hussein; Asuman Karadeniz; Hassan E Khalid; Victor Kuete; Ik-Soo Lee; Liang Liu; Jacob Midiwo; Rodrigo Mora; Hiroshi Nakagawa; Olipa Ngassapa; Chanai Noysang; Leonida K Omosa; Fred Hwiemtun Roland; Abdelaaty A Shahat; Antoine Saab; Elfatih M Saeed; Letian Shan; Salam J J Titinchi

doi:10.1016/j.phymed.2015.12.006

Biopiracy of natural products and good bioprospecting practice

Phytomedicine. 2016 Feb 15;23(2):166-73. doi: 10.1016/j.phymed.2015.12.006. Epub 2016 Jan 9.

Authors

Thomas Efferth¹, Mita Banerjee², Norbert W Paul³, Sara Abdelfatah⁴, Joachim Arend⁴, Gihan Elhassan⁵, Sami Hamdoun⁴, Rebecca Hamm⁴, Chunlan Hong⁴, Onat Kadioglu⁴, Janine Naß⁴, Dominic Ochwangi⁶, Edna Ooko⁴, Nadire Ozenver⁴, Mohamed E M Saeed⁴, Mathias Schneider⁴, Ean-Jeong Seo⁴, Ching-Fen Wu⁴, Ge Yan⁴, Maen Zeino⁴, Qiaoli Zhao⁴, Mohammad S Abu-Darwish⁷, Kai Andersch⁸, Gladys Alexie⁹, Dawn Bessarab¹⁰, Dipita Bhakta-Guha¹¹, Vanderlan Bolzani¹², Else Dapat¹³, Fedor V Donenko¹⁴, Monika Efferth⁴, Henry J Greten¹⁵, Leslie Gunatilaka¹⁶, Ahmed A Hussein¹⁷, Asuman Karadeniz¹⁸, Hassan E Khalid¹⁹, Victor Kuete²⁰, Ik-Soo Lee²¹, Liang Liu²², Jacob Midiwo²³, Rodrigo Mora²⁴, Hiroshi Nakagawa²⁵, Olipa Ngassapa²⁶, Chanai Noysang²⁷, Leonida K Omosa²³, Fred Hwiemtun Roland²⁸, Abdelaaty A Shahat²⁹, Antoine Saab³⁰, Elfatih M Saeed³¹, Letian Shan³², Salam J J Titinchi¹⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pharmaceutical Biology, Institute of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, Johannes Gutenberg University, Staudinger Weg 5, 55128 Mainz, Germany. Electronic address: efferth@uni-mainz.de.
² Department of English and Linguistics, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany.
³ Institute for History, Theory and Ethics of Medicine, Johannes Gutenberg University Medical Center, Mainz, Germany.
⁴ Department of Pharmaceutical Biology, Institute of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, Johannes Gutenberg University, Staudinger Weg 5, 55128 Mainz, Germany.
⁵ Department of Pharmaceutical Biology, Institute of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, Johannes Gutenberg University, Staudinger Weg 5, 55128 Mainz, Germany; Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, University of Khartoum, Khartoum, Sudan.
⁶ Department of Pharmaceutical Biology, Institute of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, Johannes Gutenberg University, Staudinger Weg 5, 55128 Mainz, Germany; Department of Veterinary Anatomy and Physiology, University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya.
⁷ Shoubak University College, Al-Balqa Applied University, Jordan.
⁸ Wilderness International, Dresden (Germany) and Stony Plain, Alberta, Canada.
⁹ Fort McPherson, Northwest Territories, Canada.
¹⁰ Center for Health Innovation Research Institute, Faculty of Health Sciences, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia.
¹¹ School of Chemical and Biotechnology, SASTRA University, Thanjavur 613401, T.N., India.
¹² Department of Organic Chemistry, Institute of Chemistry, São Paulo State University, Araraquara, Brazil.
¹³ Department of Biology, University of the Philippines, Manila City, and Institute of Biology, University of the Philippines, Dilman, Quezon City, Philippines.
¹⁴ N.N. Blokhin Russian Cancer Research Center, Moscow, Russia.
¹⁵ Biomedical Sciences Institute Abel Salazar, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal and Heidelberg School of Chinese Medicine, Heidelberg, Germany.
¹⁶ Southwest Center for Natural Products Research and Commercialization, School of Natural Resources and the Environment, Tucson, Arizona, United States.
¹⁷ Chemistry Department, University of Western Cape, Belleville, South Africa.
¹⁸ Mehmet Akif Ersoy University, Biology Department, Burdur, Turkey.
¹⁹ Department of Pharmacognosy, University of Khartoum, Khartoum, Sudan.
²⁰ Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Dschang, Dschang, Cameroon.
²¹ College of Pharmacy, Chonnam National University, Gwangju, Republic of Korea.
²² Macao University of Science and Technology, Macao, China.
²³ Department of Chemistry, University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya.
²⁴ Faculty of Microbiology, Rodrigo Facio University, San José, Costa Rica.
²⁵ Department of Applied Biological Chemistry, College of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Chubu University, Kasugai, and Department of Biomolecular Engineering, Graduate School of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Yokohama, Japan.
²⁶ Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
²⁷ Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand and Traditional Medicine College, Rajamangala University of Technology Thayaburi, Phathumthani, Thailand.
²⁸ Duncan, Vancouver Island, Canada.
²⁹ Pharmacognosy Department, College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia ; Phytochemistry Department, National Research Center, Cairo, Egypt.
³⁰ Faculty of Sciences II, Lebanese University, Chemistry Department, Beirut, Lebanon.
³¹ Federal Government of Sudan, Khartoum, Sudan.
³² Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, China.

PMID: 26926178
DOI: 10.1016/j.phymed.2015.12.006

Abstract

Background: Biopiracy mainly focuses on the use of biological resources and/or knowledge of indigenous tribes or communities without allowing them to share the revenues generated out of economic exploitation or other non-monetary incentives associated with the resource/knowledge.

Methods: Based on collaborations of scientists from five continents, we have created a communication platform to discuss not only scientific topics, but also more general issues with social relevance. This platform was termed 'PhytCancer -Phytotherapy to Fight Cancer' (www.phyt-cancer.uni-mainz.de). As a starting point, we have chosen the topic "biopiracy", since we feel this is of pragmatic significance for scientists working with medicinal plants.

Results: It was argued that the patenting of herbs or natural products by pharmaceutical corporations disregarded the ownership of the knowledge possessed by the indigenous communities on how these substances worked. Despite numerous court decisions in U.S.A. and Europe, several international treaties, (e.g. from United Nations, World Health Organization, World Trade Organization, the African Unity and others), sharing of a rational set of benefits amongst producers (mainly pharmaceutical companies) and indigenous communities is yet a distant reality. In this paper, we present an overview of the legal frameworks, discuss some exemplary cases of biopiracy and bioprospecting as excellent forms of utilization of natural resources.

Conclusions: We suggest certain perspectives, by which we as scientists, may contribute towards prevention of biopiracy and also to foster the fair utilization of natural resources. We discuss ways, in which the interests of indigenous people especially from developing countries can be secured.

Keywords: Bioethics; Bioprospecting; Commercialization; Indigenous knowledge; Intellectual property; Patent.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Review

MeSH terms

Biological Products*
Bioprospecting / ethics*
Developing Countries
Drug Industry / ethics*
Ethnopharmacology*
International Cooperation
Ownership*
Patents as Topic
Plants, Medicinal*
Theft*

Substances

Biological Products