SRI LANKA: BIOPIRATES PATENT
TRADITIONAL WISDOM
OTC 09.10.98 01:12
COLOMBO, (Oct. 8) IPS - Long before the arrival of Western drugs, indigenous doctors
pounded and prepared medicine from wild plants and flowers gathered from Sri Lanka's thick
tropical forests to treat a variety of illnesses.
The
ancient formulations of the "ayurveda" system of medicine were zealously guarded
and passed on from one generation to the next in families that could trace back their
ancestry for many centuries.
In the northcentral town of Polonnaruwa an indigenous doctor treats patients with heart
problems who would otherwise require bypass surgery for a fraction of the cost of surgery
which is at least $4,500 in hospitals in the country..
Now giant global pharmaceutical drug companies, aware of the therapeu tical qualities of
medicinal plants, are virtually stealing this ancient wisdom by extracting chemicals from
local plants and patenting it abroad, particularly in the United States.
Upali Pilapitiya, director of the Bandaranaike Memorial Ayurveda Research Institute, says
that the tremendous interest in the West about natural Ayurvedic remedies, has led to a
growing interest in Asia's indigenous plant life.
Studies have revealed that more than 40 percent of western pharmaceutical products contain
Asian plant extracts but these Asian countries including Sri Lanka have earned very little
in return.
Export of medicinal plants or their extracts is banned in Sri Lanka. However bio-piracy is
flourishing, quite often with the assistance of Sri Lankans who have no qualms of selling
indigenous knowledge and innovation. Last month, a university professor and another
wealthy Sri Lankan, whose wife is a social activist, were detained for bio-piracy by
security personnel.
"Loopholes in existing law s and other legal snags are robbing the country of
millions of dollars that is rightfully ours," asserts Sirimal Premakumara, a
scientist at the Ceylon Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research.
He said that since the country does not have the hi-tech scientific equipment to analyze
chemical components of indigenous plants or the capacity to pay the international patent
fee of $60,000, wealthy countries are taking advantage.
For instance Salacil Reticulata, the scientific name for the loc ally grown Kothalahimbutu
plant, has been recognized abroad for its ability to control diabetes. Ayurveda physicians
in Sri Lanka have always advised patients to drink water left overnight in a hand-carved
Kothalahimbutu mug or jug, whose production has become a cottage industry in the island.
Newspapers here report that a Japanese drug company patented a product based on this herb
through the American Chemical Society last year.
Many other patents, like from the plant Weniwalgeta -- used effec tively as a herbal
remedy for fever, coughs and colds -- have been registered by Japanese, European and U.S.
pharmaceutical manufacturers.
Environmental lawyer Jagath Gunawardene says, "although the law requires that a
patent can be obtained only if it is an economically valuable invention created through a
methodology, most multinationals have somehow obtained patents for products used in our
country for thousands of years."
Scientists say that the normal ruse adopted by drug transnationals is
to befriend an indigenous doctor, learn the curative properties of plants and sometimes
offer him a trip abroad. The process of extraction of the chemical and export of the
product which is often in the form of a powder, chemical solvent or the bark of trees,
follows.
The two recent cases of biopiracy last month involving a university botanist and a wealthy
Sri Lankan got wide publicity and led to a sudden interest in the issue by
environmentalists and scientists here.
The botanist was interce pted by customs at Colombo airport trying to smuggle some plant
extracts in his suitcase. In the same month, customs officials discovered a container load
of Kothalahimbutu -- 1,512 cups weighing some 4 tons -- being shipped to Japan through a
firm owned by the wealthy Sri Lankan.
Gunawardene feels that the laws should be strengthened to prevent the smuggling of Sri
Lanka's indigenous plants and ayurvedic knowledge.
Normally, product patents are given only if they fulfill the criteria of being=20 new,
specify the process and must necessarily have commercial value. If there are discrepancies
in this process, the patent can be contested in court.
Like in the case of the U.S patent for turmeric which was successfully challenged by India
on the grounds that its medicinal properties are well known since ancient times.
However, because India has no worthwhile law to protect its rich biodiversity or
intellectual property rights another U.S company earlier this year took out patents on
long-grai n basmati rice grown for centuries by farmers in India and Pakistan.
Developing countries, rich in indigenous resources, need to tighten biodiversity laws to
stop the usurpation of the resources and knowledge of its people, Sri Lankan scientists
say.
Copyright 1998