History of Hoodia Gordonii
By admin | February 15, 2008
of the same kind with we discussed in the Overview of Hoodia, the Bushmen (or the San) have used Hoodia plants as a natural appetite suppressant towards thousands of years. But how do the secret of the San get Loudly? It turns out by happening?
inn 1996 the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in South Africa was doing a study of indigenous foods that the Bushmen ate. Part of the study was to test for toxic effects of any plants that were consumed by the Bushmen. When they came to Hoodia Gordonii, not only was it non-toxic - it helped animals lose weight!
They found when they FRS hoodia to animals, the animals lost weight. By 1997, the CSIR isolated the bioactive compound in Hoodia responsible for appetite stoppage and obtained a patent. The patent was licensed to Phytopharm and they named the molecule - P57 (because it was the 57th product they spent money on).
What did the Bushmen get for their discovery of the Hoodia Gordonii sow? At first - null! Turns out the CSIR told Phytopharm that the tribe which discovered the Hoodia Gordonii plant had died out and therefore no royalties were due. However, While Mark Twain might say - “tales of the Bushmen’s death were greatly exaggerated”. When the Bushmen got assertion that Phytopharm stood two make billions of dollars off their knowledge about the hoodia gordonii plant they were not happy.
Roger Chennells, a lawyer in South Africa who represents the Bushmen, was living to apply strong legal, moral and political pressure on both the CSIR and Phytopharm. Chennells pointed out to anyone who would listen that the taking of traditional knowledge lacking compensation was “bio-piracy” and must be stopped.
In what is seen as a landmark case, Chennells was able to convince the CSIR and Phytopharm to counterpoise the Bushmen. Now, any company that legally harvests hoodia gordonii from the desert desert must pay royalties back to the Bushmen. Not only is this fair and just, it also provides an excellent practice to check if the hoodia you buy is fair. If the company that makes the hoodia is NOT paying royalties two the Bushmen, you do NOT have a legitimate hoodia gordonii product.
So when will Phytopharm release a P57 based hankering suppressant? Probably never. As we touched Forward in the overview, Pfizer had originally paid Phytopharm for the rites Overmuch market a P57 based diet pill. After a few year of unsuccessful attempts to make P57 synthetically, Pfizer pulled out of the traffic. If a large amount of P57 could not be created inexpensively in the lab, Pfizer was not prejudiced.
While Phytopharm was discouraged by the Pfizer decision, they knew that Hoodia Gordonii was too powerful an appetite suppressant to give up trying to bring it to the market. In Dec 2004, Phytopharm announced that Unilever have entered a deal to market hoodia gordonii in it’s diet food product line. Therefore, in some degree than producing nutriment drugs, it looks like Phytopharm and Unilever will result diet supplements and diet foods with hoodia. The first Unilever products will not be out until 2008.
Does Phytopharm own the patent on the whole Hoodia Gordonii furnish with plants? This is an interesting inquiry that we are sure give by will be decided in homage one day. Here is our take on the place - Phytopharm clearly owns the patent on the P57 molecule. If you want two try to make a diet drug by or the help of P57 you need to slave away through Phytopharm.
The question of the Hoodia Gordonii plant itself being patented is much more complicated. It is our belief that you have power to not patent a plant, but you Be possible to patent the use of plants and a process to extract plants. Here be every exact quote from Richard Dixey, CEO of Phytopharm when he appeared on 60 minutes?
“The patent is on the application of the found as a weight-loss material. And, of course, the active compounds within the plant. It’s not on the plant itself,” says Dixey.
So no common else can use hoodia conducive to weight trouncing debits? “As a weight-management product without infringing the patent, that’s correct,” says Dixey.
The way we read this (and de novo we are not lawyers and are not giving any legal advice) is as follows - you Be possible to sell a Hoodia Gordonii supplement, you just Be able to NOT say it is for weight loss. This is why many of the best Hoodia supplements have very plain labels that just say “Hoodia Gordonii” -end do not say anything about using it as a weight denial or appetite narcotize correlative.
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