History of Hoodia Gordonii
15.02.2008at the same time that we discussed in the Overview of Hoodia, the Bushmen (or the San) wish used Hoodia plants as a natural appetite suppressant for thousands of years. But how do the hidden of the San arrive off? It turns out by accident?
In 1996 the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in South Africa be doing a study of indigenous foods that the Bushmen eight. Part of the study be to test faugh toxic effects of any plants that be exhausted In the name of the Bushmen. When they came to Hoodia Gordonii, not only be it non-toxic - it helped animals lose weight!
They found when they fed hoodia to animals, the animals lost coefficient. By 1997, the CSIR unfrequented the bioactive compound in Hoodia responsible for appetite suppression and obtained a prominent. 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 plant? At first - nought! terns out the CSIR tell Phytopharm that the tribe which discovered the Hoodia Gordonii plant had died right and therefore no royalties were due. However, as Mark Twain might say - “tales of the Bushmen’s downfall were greatly exaggerated”. When the Bushmen got word that Phytopharm stood to make billions of dollars off their knowledge about the hoodia gordonii vine they were not happy.
Roger Chennells, a lawyer in South Africa who represents the Bushmen, was quick to apply strong legal, moral and governmental pressure on both the CSIR and Phytopharm. Chennells pointed out to anyone who would listen that the alluring of traditional knowledge without remuneration was “bio-piracy” and iness be obstructed.
In what is seen as a landmark event, Chennells was able to convince the CSIR and Phytopharm to compensate the Bushmen. Now, any house that legally harvests hoodia gordonii from the Kalahari desert must remuneration royalties back to the Bushmen. Not at worst is this fair and normal, it also provides an excellent way to check if the hoodia you buy is legitimate. If the company that makes the hoodia be NOT paying royalties to the Bushmen, you do NOT have a legitimate hoodia gordonii product.
So while will Phytopharm release a P57 supported appetite suppressant? Probably never. As we touched on in the overview, Pfizer had originally paid Phytopharm for the rights to market a P57 based diet pill. After a few year of unsuccessful attempts to make P57 synthetically, Pfizer pulled out of the deal out. whether or not a large amount of P57 could not be created inexpensively in the work, Pfizer be not interested.
While Phytopharm was discouraged by the Pfizer decision, they knew that Hoodia Gordonii was too powerful an appetite suppressant to reciprocity up trying to bring it to the market. In December 2004, Phytopharm announced that Unilever had entered a deal to market hoodia gordonii in it’s nourishment food consequence line. Therefore, in some measure than producing diet drugs, it looks mould Phytopharm and Unilever will product diet supplements and diet foods with hoodia. The first Unilever products will not be exhausted until 2008.
Does Phytopharm own the patent on the whole Hoodia Gordonii plant? This is an interesting question that we are sure will be decided in court a woman day. Here is our imitate on the situation - Phytopharm clearly owns the glaring on the P57 molecule. If you crave to try to make a diet drug with P57 you need to work through Phytopharm.
The open to debate unthinkable of the Hoodia Gordonii plant itself being patented is a great deal of more tangled. It be our belief that you Be possible to not patent a plant, but you have power to patent the use of plants and a process to extract plants. Here be an Methodical quote from Richard Dixey, CEO of Phytopharm when he appeared on 60 minutes?
“The patent is on the application of the plant as a weight-loss stuff. And, of course, the active compounds within the plant. It’s not on the plant itself,” says Dixey.
So t one one else can contemn hoodia for weight loss? “As a weight-management product without infringing the patent, that’s correct,” says Dixey.
The way we read this (and again we are not lawyers and our not giving any legal advice) is as follows - you can sell a Hoodia Gordonii supplement, you just can NOT say it is for weight loss. This is why many of the best Hoodia supplements have very plain labels that legitimate say “Hoodia Gordonii” but do not say anything about using it as a weight loss or appetite suppressant extension.
For more information visit natural health supplements blog