[Commons-Law] Pelargonium plant patent row

[Patrice Riemens]

bwo Hippies from Hell list/ Marius de Pijper

It's now 1 year old almost, but typical.
If someone knows how it ended..?

Original at:
http://www.thetimes.co.za/PrintEdition/News/Article.aspx?id=580773
(The Times South Africa)

Drug companies looting SA’s bounty of medicinal plants
Bobby Jordan 	Published:Oct 07, 2007

GERMANE: Elizabeth Nkqayi, 73, holds up a pelargonium root Picture: GARY
HORLOR

‘When they come they are just like thieves, stealing the indigenous
knowledge’
State to protect shrubs, and traditional healers’ rights



The government has stepped in to save a tiny South African plant from
extinction after hundreds of tons were harvested for foreign drug
companies, one of which has patented its use to fight HIV/Aids.

Now traditional healers, who have used the plant for centuries, are trying
to win back the patent which they claim is rightfully theirs.

The matter has become so heated that the Eastern Cape government has
banned all further harvesting of the plant pelargonium — part of the
geranium family— until further notice.

But illegal harvesting of pelargonium, also known as umckaloabo and
klawerbossie, continues in the hills around Grahamstown and Alicedale and
has led to dozens of arrests, according to Eastern Cape researchers.

Now the Department of Environmental Affairs has decided to review all
biological prospecting projects to make sure they conform to new
regulations that protect the commercial rights of traditional healers.

The pelargonium tug of war will be discussed next week in Canada at a
special United Nations working group meeting on biopiracy and
biodiversity.

At the heart of the row are three drug patents granted to German drug firm
ISO Arzneimittel for the use of extracts from pelargonium to treat a wide
range of diseases and symptoms such as pain, fatigue, depression, insomnia
and all Aids-related infections such as tuberculosis, herpes and
pneumonia. But traditional healers say they have been using the plant to
treat some of these conditions for hundreds of years.

ISO Arzneimittel has now reserved the right to apply for a South African
pelargonium patent on the use of extracts of the plant to treat HIV/Aids.
If successful it would stop South African companies using the plant to
develop medicine to fight the pandemic. This means the company could make
billions out of a plant that South Africans have harvested for centuries.

ISO Arzneimittel, linked to giant German drug company Schwabe
Pharmaceuticals, has teamed up with South African firm Parceval
Pharmaceuticals, which has a permit to harvest pelargonium.

Extracts of the plant are contained in homeopathic remedies and sold in
Germany as “Umckaloabo” and in America as “Umcka”.

Existing patent law makes no provision for traditional knowledge, although
this is likely to change.

In what is seen as a significant step towards patent reform, a group of
community leaders near Alicedale in the Eastern Cape this week appointed
legal advisers to help protect their traditional knowledge of pelargonium,
which they say has started to disappear from the wild due to commercial
demand.

The move has also sparked a fierce backlash against the pharmaceutical
companies from South Africa’s Traditional Healers Organisation and
environmentalists, who now want ISO Arzneimittel’s patents revoked.

“I grew up knowing that this plant is very important,” said Nomthumzi
Sizani, spokesman for the Eastern Cape group. “T he community wants to
stop [companies] from saying they were the first to know that this
medicine is important, because we grew up knowing that.”

She said it was unfair for a foreign company to make millions while
unemployed villagers earned only R4 per kilo of pelargonium: “When the
buyers come they are like thieves, just stealing the indigenous
knowledge,” Sizani said.

Patent experts said these issues would be addressed by at least two new
laws which will soon be tabled in South Africa.

Currently, foreign companies do not have to enter into community-sharing
agreements with communities if they develop medicines based on traditional
knowledge. Although a plant may not be patented, any company can patent
extracts of a plant or a new use for plant extracts if they can prove they
are the first to discover this use, experts said.

Rich foreign companies have snapped up hundreds of patents this way
despite ongoing protests from traditional healers who do not have the
resources to compete.

ISO Arzneimittel could not be reached for comment this week. However their
South African partner, Parceval, said the German company’s patents did not
clash with traditional use of the plant.

Parceval spokesman Ulrich Feiter said: “The patents cover only one certain
preparation and not pelargonium in general. Pelargonium is used by a
number of companies, in South Africa and elsewhere, and they have not been
challenged by the patent holder in any way.”

But traditional healers say they don’t believe the company should qualify
for any patents at all because it did not discover its powerful
properties. It’s a view shared by some environmental groups fighting for
social justice, including the African Centre for Biosafety (ACB).

ACB director Mariam Mayet said: “Just because the traditional healers
didn’t write down the chemical formula, doesn’t mean they didn’t know all
about the plant and how it could be used. ”

According to an ACB report, pelargonium was “discovered” in 1897 by a
mechanic from Birmingham who sought medical advice from a Basotho healer.
The plants were later tested in Europe and, after studies at the
University of Munich, some of their biological properties were patented by
ISO Arzneimittel in 2002.

Pelargonium is one of dozens of South African plants being targeted by
drug companies eager to develop new medicines. Other plants successfully
targeted in recent years include sutherlandia and hoodia, a succulent
plant used by San communities to suppress appetite and thirst on long
hunting journeys.